Manhunting 101
by Punkpoet69 AKA Jamiesgirl
Summary: After lying to her mother to keep her from meddling in her love life, Gabriella just wants to find a date to her sister wedding. Then there's Troy, her new mysterious next door neighbor who just wants a second chance at life. Alone, easy & women free. Too bad for him Gabriella's on a man hunting mission because he might just be her next target. (I do not own HSM)
1. Chapter 1

"_Welcome back to Ask a Bitch! On 79.6 FM, with your host Sharpay Evans." _

A station that had once been playing the top 40's had now switched over to some talk show he'd never heard of before. Deciding to indulge he reached to turn up the volume as he shifted in his seat. Troy looked at the radio clock for a quick second before looking back at the empty road his Ford Windstar was traveling along. It had been seven hours since his last stop and the drive was making it hard to stay up. Until his station got redirected to this talk show.

"_So let me get this straight you have this boyfriend and he got a hair cut which now makes him look like you hot history teacher?"_

"_Does that count as cheating, is it even right?"_

"_Are you kidding no, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to live out a fantasy and not cheat." _

"_You think so?"_

"_If my boyfriend wakes up tomorrow looking like Brad Pit trust me I'm not going to be pissed and expect this show to be canceled!" _

_Laughter filled the air waves. _

Troy chuckled himself and looked at the sign that said Albuquerque 5 miles. "Oh my god," He mumbled reaching down for his cold coffee and lifting it to his lips. Wincing he felt the grimy texture of the coffee slide down his throat as he placed it back in the cup holder. He needed to get more coffee.

"_So our next topic is called I sleep with my son's friends. Let's talk about your freaky stuff? I know there are cougars out there in Albuquerque. Just the other day Gabi here, was flirting with a high school student."_

"_Hey, I didn't know he was in high school." _

This voice wasn't like the caller before; this voice came in clear and smooth. She was in the studio as well. Troy squinted as he saw a sign in the distance for a Dunkin Doughnuts. Coffee.

"_Don't tell me, I know what kind of freak you are. Talk to the people; tell them about your experience."_

"_Hey, I swear he looked at least 27." _

"_Tell everyone how old he really was."_

"_God I hate you. He was 18." _

"_So he was a high school senior, not to bad and legal so why not?"_

"_I'm 30 years old I am not dating a high school boy."_

"_But you would have settled for a 27 year old ass. Huh?"_

"_I have limits." _

Troy turned off the car and got out as he walked towards the entrance with a smirk. The radio show was if anything else at least amusing. Coming into the empty restaurant he walked up to the counter and was surprise to hear the show continue. The was a two girls behind the counter listening to it on a small radio both hovered around it like it had all the answers to life.

For a moment he debated turning around, he thought about avoiding them altogether. Looking around he spotted a camera in the left corner of the counter watching him with judgment. Two years ago walking into a room with two teenage girls had been an everyday occurrence, something he hadn't thought twice about. Now he hesitated, he stalled, he waited for the pointed looks and fearful glazes.

When nothing happened his shoulders loosened just bit as he decided to walk up to the counter. He had to remember he wasn't in Miami anymore. It wasn't still in his old hometown where everyone had known who he was. He had to get himself accustom to the fact that he was now the only one in the room who knew about the past. He was only one who felt the tension and fear.

Many would say that returning back to teaching was a horrible idea after what he'd been through. There was no way he'd be able to trust his judgment, know when things were crossing a line, or even be able to provide the one on one that some students may need. The bottom line was that Troy was a teacher, he'd been teaching for almost 12 years, and before last year he absolutely loved it. It was a habit he couldn't break, the only lifestyle he knew and he used to be great at it.

"Excuse me?" Troy held up a hand to catch the girl's attention, "Can I have a medium coffee, two creams, and one sugar?"

"I'll do it," The girl with green stripes in her hair stood up from her worshipping position by the radio and walked over to the coffee pot.

"Thanks," Troy said politely as he reached in his back pocket for his wallet. The restaurant was quiet except for the voice coming from the radio.

"_I bet our girl Cathy here wouldn't mind tapping some 18 year old booty. Would you?" _

"_I can't believe I'm on the air, I love you guys!"_

"_Awww, thanks, and trust me we love you too, so tell us about your dirty little secret." _

"_Well, I love meeting my son's friends. They have all this energy and curiosity about things. I love answering their questions."_

"_Well hand Cathy here a ruler! Now you have to tell us do you ever role play?"_

"_Oh god yes, why not. The great thing about the young guys is that they're still in shape!" _

"_How old is your son." _

"_22 years old"_

"_And if you don't mind me asking how old are you my naughty little Cathy?"_

"_Oh god… I'm 45 years old!"_

"_Are you a sexy hot momma?"_

"_Hell yea I am! I keep myself in shape ever since the divorce, I look better, I feel better and my sex drive is through the roof." _

"_That is sexy."_

Troy let out a breath as he shrugged his shoulders. "Where was she when I was 22?" he joked stiffly, trying to relax as he waited for his coffee. When he turned back to see the girl coming to the counter with his cup he got anxious to be out of there.

"$4.65" she said with a smirk as rung him up. "You passing through or moving in?"

Troy raised a brow as he handed her the money, "I'm sorry," he hadn't been prepared for conversation. He'd been prepared to take his coffee and hightail it out of there.

"Your Van's packed with crap," she said motioning to his car outside, "You didn't drive all this was in the middle of the night for a cup of coffee. You're going somewhere."

Troy let out a small laugh, "Yea, my grandmother left me a house here, so figured I'd move in for a bit and fix it up."

"Sounds like something on TLC," she said handing him his cup.

"Yeah," Troy let out a sigh, "It does, doesn't it," reaching for a napkin he looked over at the other girl who was still entranced by the show she was listening to.

"Sharpay Evans is a big deal down here," the girl with the green stripes said.

"Her radio show is …amusing."

"Well, it's totally inappropriate and it's run by three girls. It gets a lot of attention," she said placing a hand on her hip before speaking again, "good and bad."

"I see that," Troy said as he picked up his coffee from the counter, "Well, you girls have a safe night."

"You too," she said with a small smile.

Troy turned and headed back to his car, a girl like that had to be in high school. His brows shot up as he turned to look back at the girls as they gathered by the radio once more. They had to be no more that 17 or 18. Working this late on the side of the road, listening to that show, it all kinds of bad influences. Fishing his keys out of his pocket he opened the door and got in. His Albuquerque adventure was off to a strange start.

"Is it time to go home yet?" Gabriella looked down at her clip board as she watched Sharpay reading over her notes and sipping her coffee cup. They were on a commercial break and Taylor was rounding up calls as Sharpay leaned back and flipped through the page in her notebook. Producing Sharpay's show wasn't exactly what she saw herself doing with her college education in communications but she enjoyed it and she wouldn't have had it any other way. Although, her parents on the other hand, would have preferred if she done something a little more tasteful with her life, something that included a husband, a white picket fence and a couple of grandchildren. Looking down at the switch board in front of her she let out a sigh as she tried to push all her personal family drama to the dark corners of her mind.

"What's up girly?" Sharpay said looking over at Gabriella. The whole show was done in a studio with a big round machine in the middle of the room. They called it Betty, after their idol Betty White. Betty was covered with computer screens and switch boards everywhere. Sharpay sat in front of the mic and currently her head phones were on the table in front of her as watched Gabriella with concern. Taylor was busy talking to callers and flipping between phone lines to notice their conversation.

"Tired I guess," Gabriella said, she sat in front of four computer screens and main switch board. Her job was to make sure everything went off without fault.

Sharpay frowned as she looked at Gabriella. "Well on the plus side at least it's Friday," she said with a smile.

"Tell me about it," Gabriella rolled her eyes as she sat up in an effort to stretch out her back. "Do you have plans for this weekend?"

"Party here, party there same old public relations bullshit," she said with a shrug.

Gabriella offered a soft smile; Sharpay was the star of the show, without her there wouldn't be a show. She was also one of Gabriella's best friends from high school. Her parents had also forbid them from hanging out together, but Sharpay was the kind of girl who didn't let a little thing like authority get in her way. Looking down at her phone that rested on the table she had three missed calls from her mother. Looking back up at Sharpay she shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I will be reading a book this weekend."

Sharpay let out a laugh as she looked at Gabriella endearingly. Reaching up she picked up one of her golden blond strands and began twirling it between her fingers. "Man I miss being able to just read a book."

"I rarely get to do it anymore either," Gabriella shrugged as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Ready?" Taylor asked with a smiled as she pulled a headset down.

"Bring it," Sharpay said picking up her head phones and placing them on her head. It was an effortless and flawless transition in her demeanor. Like a flip in of switch everything changed and Sharpay went from small town girl to sexy air wave kitten."Welcome back to Ask a Bitch! On 79.6 FM, with your host Sharpay Evans. You got questions, I got answers call in at 1-800-779-6209 and I'll hook you up because I got your crazy right here, baby!"

Troy sighed in relief as he flipped on his turning signal he finally reach his turn. He needed a rest stop but he knew as soon as he got to his Grandmother's house he could just set up a small bed and knock out for night. His cell began to buzz again and he looked down at it for second and decided he would return the call in the morning.

"_So what is your question Tammy?" _

The voice from the radio was back and Troy adjusted the knob once more so he could hear.

"_What is up with the fade way? I've been dating this guy for one year and all of a sudden he just stops call contact and it's been a month since I've seen him. Like, seriously, do I move on or do I give him some space?" _

"_Girl, I hate to break it to you but it might be time move on. As soon as someone in the relationship starts to pull away there is no going back. You can't fix it. Save you self the struggle call him directly and break it off. Trust me on this."_

"_Why do I have to call him?"_

"_When it comes to men you have to remember three things Tammy. One, men cannot change their ways unless they make that step themselves. Two, men suck at starting relationships, and three men suck at break ups."_

"_Oh god that's so true."_

"_Men are always going to take the easy way out because they don't know how else to end it and they're hoping you'll end it and at this point if you just get this break up over with. You can move on, get closure and you risk being a cheater or a slut." _

"_So make the break up official."_

"_As harsh as it sounds yes my love you gotta break him off."_

Turning off the radio Troy drove in silence not interested to hear the aftermath of this conversation with Tammy. All he had to do was find his new house and set up for the night. Pulling into a side street he looked at the written address on a slip of paper and slowly pulled up to a small grey house that seemed to be genially in good shape. Parking the car he got out and opened the back for a few of his things. Tomorrow the movers would be here with the rest of his stuff and he would be able to get more settled in. Tonight however all he needed was a goodnights rest.

Stretching his arms over his head, Troy grabbed his duffle bag from the rear. He had placed the keys to the house in the duffle bag, now standing on the dark porch he realized that had been a poor choice on his part. Miracles of miracles his hand closed over them on the second dip. Moments later he was inside, walking around flickering on lights and opening windows to relieve the stuffy, musty smell. He passed quickly through the living room filled with heavy old fashion furniture, the two bedrooms with their stripped bare beds and his tour in the kitchen.

He walked to the back door and stepped onto a broad porch that overlooked a yard thick with grass, overgrown garden beds. A shed huddled in the left hand corner. He considered it briefly, and then decided he would inspect it later. Maybe tomorrow during the day just in case anything living with claws or fang was sleeping there.

His grandmother had died over a year ago now, but neither his parents nor his aunt had gotten around to doing anything about it until now. It seemed like everyone agreed that Troy needed the time away, needed the new start and he took it. After all it was an opportunity, a new adventure. He'd make some friends, try to forget about his life back in Miami and who know maybe he'd meet new people. People who didn't know about him, or judge him based on lies and rumors. He just needed a fresh start and he was going to enjoy this 2nd chance and try to make the most of it. A chance to be a different man, a man who wasn't so good, or careful, or treated like a door mat, this was his chance to change that.

The thought of being a good man caused nausea to boil in his stomach. He'd been guilty of being a people pleaser all his life. He'd disappointed people to such a great extent recently that he didn't know who he was anymore. He wasn't sure he could call himself a good man; he wasn't an atheist necessarily, but he wasn't sure he could classify as a Christian either. These days the only things he had to define him was the fact that he loved Golden Oreos, developed a mad addiction to _Breaking Bad_, and he was insanely disappointed in himself and approximately half of the people who used to be in his life.

Looking around the house he let out a long sigh, he was a different man now, someone he hardly recognized in the mirror. Without needing to meet anyone he already knew he liked it here, most of all because no one knew who he was. No one would know about how royally he screwed up. He had gained firsthand knowledge about the domino effect of bad decisions. One wrong move could make everything around you tumble downward.

It was nearly two in the morning after the show was done and put to rest before Gabriella made it to her home. When she got there she was annoyed by a blue van parked in her normal spot causing her to have to circle the block. "Dick," She muttered as she found a new spot two blocks down. "I produce one of the best late night radio talk shows on air. You'd think the least I could get is a decent parking spot," she muttered in annoyance as she removed her heals and proceed to walk home. With two bags over her shoulder a sleepy Gabriella made her way up the walk to her home which was a small green heaven of neat and well paid for kept maintenance.

Whereas the grey thumb sore next door had over grown weeds and had been abandoned for some time. It was falling apart; it smelled and was a complete eye sore. A time or two she even thought the place was haunted. With a small shiver she looked back at the blue van she shook her head. "May you have four flat tires and not a spare in the trunk, asshole," she muttered as she took the steps up to her front door. Before she stepped inside a light caught her eye and she walked over to the edge of her porch to see a light on in the ugly house on the second floor. "They must have sold it," she whispered to herself, that or there was a ghost up there who needed the light on to their ghostly bidding. Gabriella frowned as she looked down at her keys and decided it was time to go inside. It was also time for a glass of wine.


	2. Chapter 2

The sound of a loud bang jolted Gabriella from a restless sleep as she sat straight up right in her bed. Another bang sounded and she jerked in surprise. Looking over at the clock she let out a groan as she fell back into bed. It was only eight in the morning, she'd finally fallen asleep at three and here she was with five hours of sleep. Bringing her pillow up and over her head she groaned as she tried to think of sleep thoughts that might pull her back into that comfortable deep sleep she yearned for but the noise outside had other ideas. A loud thud echoed again outside and she sat up again with a small groan. She always slept till noon. What in the world was going on outside that woke her up five hours before she wanted to be conscious.

"To the left." There was a voice outside her bedroom window the sound of someone giving directions faintly made its way through the small opening.

She threw off the covers then swung her legs to the floor. Her joints and muscles protested the action, as they always did first thing in the morning, or whenever she'd been sitting in the same position for too long. She gritted her teeth as she pushed herself to her feet anyway. If she waited until the pain stopped, she'd never get anything done. The morning sun was peeking in from her closed blinds and she made her way to the dresser to get a big old t-shirt to cover herself.

"I swear to god someone better be dying," she mumbled getting as glimpse of herself in the mirror she winced at her pillow's latest creation. Took some through brushing and tugging but she finally managed a ponytail. The noise outside was still happening and unable to hide her curiosity any further she came over to the window and pushed the blinds up so she could look down into the front yard. The noise was coming from next door where three men were moving in boxes and furniture to the ugly haunted house next door.

"We have to bring it in sideways," one of the men called back in a mover's uniform as they dealt with a smaller couch against a narrow doorway, "It's not fitting any other way."

Bringing a hand up to rub the sleep from her eyes she groaned and shut the window to block out the voices. "Who the hell moves in at eight in the morning," she groaned and walked into the bathroom she needed to brush her teeth and wash her face.

About a half an hour later she put her jeans on and hid hair underneath a baseball cap. Going back into the room she reached into her dresser for an old white cotton bra. Saturdays were her personal days, the days she got everything back on track and took the time to de-funk her mind. She go on her errands, she wouldn't run, she wouldn't eat what she was suppose to and she never took a shower on a Saturday unless she was going out anywhere people might judge her. Finally she put the bra on and tugged her shirt back on. Making her way down stairs she let out a sigh as she worked her neck muscles back and forth. Her body knew it should still be back in bed but her mind was already up and running.

Grabbing a pile of mail she'd brought in last night she shifted through it. "Bill, junk, bill, junk, junk, promotions, fan, fan, fan, don't know, junk." She sorted it into four different piles and then sorted them into a shelving unit that had a cubby for each pile. The noise from next door was louder from down here and she took a deep breath as she made a mental note to pick up some crappy looking pie from the store to bring over later as a welcome present.

Bringing her hands up to her neck she yawned and tried to rub her sore muscles. She was in pain that was for sure. Looking at her phone messages she looked at the blinking light and hit the button before turning on the coffee pot she began to prepare for the coffee.

_Gabriella, this is your mother. Do not screen my calls. You're sister is freaking out about the dresses for the wedding party, your father is testing my patience with his garage project and you're ignoring me. Gabriella Marie Montez you're my daughter I demand you answer the phone._

Gabriella placed both her hands on the counter top as she let out a sigh, "Love you too mother." Leaving the coffee machine it to work its magic she walked over to the business bags she brought in from the office last night and took out all the paper work she had to sort through before Monday's show. Things they had to cover things she had to look into further. Walking into her office she placed all the paper work on her desk and then made her way back to the kitchen for her coffee.

There was a note on the fridge she removed it from underneath the smiley face magnate and looked down at the list. It was all her Saturday to do list.

_Milk _

_Eggs_

_Coffee_

_Cheese cake_

_Ice cream_

_Bacon _

_Magazines _

_Bank deposit_

_Take clothes to cleaners._

_Call mom about wedding plans_

_Get dress _

_Get gift_

_Meet up with Sam for lunch. _

"Well if I'm lucky I can get all of this done before lunch and then use the rest of the day to read my book," she said to herself as she look at the stack of four books sitting on the side table in the living room. She poured herself a cup of coffee and then retrieved her cell phone from her back pocket. It lit up with a text from Sharpay.

_Call me about tonight! _

Rolling her eyes she put the phone down on the counter and brought her coffee up to her lips she gently took a long sip of her coffee enjoying the warm ripe taste of Folgers. She needed more sleep, she needed a glass of wine, what she needed was to drop off the face of the earth for a little while. She took a deep breath and was startled when the door bell rang. Spilling a bit of her coffee she cursed and made her way to the door, on her way there she grabbed a rag to wiped the coffee from her blouse. When she opened the door she came face to face with a man in a yellow Larry's movers uniform.

"Can I help you?" she said looking at the man as he looked at her and smiled.

"Yeah we're moving someone in next door and the owner of the house said that the keys to the back gate were left here. I was hoping we could get that from you we need to bring the fridge in around back," he said looking at her with a creepy smile.

Gabriella felt herself almost becoming naked underneath his glaze and she rolled her eyes. "Just wait here," she said bringing her coffee to her lips as she turned around for the envelope that had been in her cabinet for the last four months. Bringing it back to the man at the door she held it out to him and gave him a fake smile. "Here you go."

"Thank you miss."

"Bye, bye now." Gabriella said closing the door before he could say anything else. Shaking her head she walked back into the kitchen finished her coffee and washed the cup. Grabbing her car keys she slipped her shoes on and tucked her list into her back pocket.

Meanwhile next store Troy was on the phone with his mother. "Yeah, no, the drive was fine," he said hold the phone between his shoulder and ear as he signed a slip for one of the movers.

"Have you had a chance to meet anyone yet?"

"No, I haven't, I've been busy all morning, and this place isn't exactly a palace."

"But you like it there don't you, you can always come home you know that right?"

Troy walked into what was the kitchen as he opened his back door for the refrigerator. He watched through the window as they backed the truck into the back area to bring in his kitchen stuff. "I know I can, I just have to figure this out on my own. I'm not going to let one bad experience change my entire life."

"Honey you moved all the way to New Mexico, I think it already did," his mother said endearingly.

"You know what I mean, besides Grandma's been gone for a while it's about time someone took over the responsibilities down here," he said looking at the dust covered kitchen sink. "I figure if I fix it up I could sell it for a profit and maybe move back on day when I'm ready."

"Troy you're father and I are always here for you no matter what you decide," she said endearingly. "I just wish you didn't have to be so far away, I miss my baby boy."

"I miss you to mom," Troy looked around kitchen and swept his finger along one of the cabinet. The door rested crooked as if it had been knocked out of place. "Well, there are boxes everywhere right now," he said looking around, "It's a decent size place, I really like it, it seems like the perfect distraction for a while," he said with a smile.

"You know what else would be a distraction, a pretty girl, one who could give me grandchildren."

"Mom," Troy winced, "I think it's better for me if I just sit out of the dating pool for a while." His feelings about woman were forever damaged. He wanted nothing to do with them and any trust he had in his own instincts no matter how much he wanted to believe in it was gone. "Maybe I'll get a dog."

"A dog, great at this rate, I'll have grandchildren I can share my diapers with."

"Mom," Troy walked towards the living room and picked up his box cutter. "I think you're being a little dramatic."

"It unhealthy for a man your age to not have someone to take care of him, if you did maybe the whole thing with Tiffany wouldn't have happened."

"I don't want to talk about it mom," Troy said his voice was crisp. "What happened with Tiffany wasn't my fault, she needs help. Hopefully she'd getting it."

"What about that job offer as a substitute, did they go into your records."

"They did, the charges were drop and Tiffany's testimony is on record. I'll be subbing for a while on a trail bases until something comes up." Troy reached into the box and took out a lamp. "I start on Tuesday," He said with a smile as he slit a box open. "High school isn't that bad," he said with a smirk, "Well for the teachers at least."

A noise from the hallway caught his attention and he looked up to see one of the movers standing in the living room entry "Mr. Bolton, where do you want the fridge?" he asked pointing behind him at the kitchen.

He frowned, held up one finger in a just-a-second gesture. "Hey mom let me call you back after I've unpacked,"

"Just try to be safe okay. We love you Honey."

"I will," he said with a small smile, "Love you too mom." Pulling the phone away he hung up his cell phone and walked over to the kitchen where the mover was waiting.

"Where do you want it?" the mover asked again.

"Just put it in that corner over there," Troy said after examining the kitchen.

"Yes sir, you're the boss."

Troy turned around and walked back through the house to the front door where he stepped out onto the old porch for some much needed fresh air. The house need a lot of care, a lot fixing and how lot of hope but after the year he had. He needed the distraction. This small little neighborhood was the perfect place to hide for a while. Maybe he would get a dog, a big one. Rubbing the back of his neck he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Just as he was about to step back in he heard the sound of a door closing and he looked over in the direction of the little green house next door. She was looking at her phone, lost in it, not even aware that she was being watched. He tucked his hands in his pockets as he watched her walk down her stoop. She was pretty, the kind of pretty you'd expect to find in a small town. Her ponytail was long and bounced around as it came out from the back of her baseball cap and she was wearing blue jeans with a red t-shirt that was about two sizes too big. He watched as she walked down the path of her yard and onto the side walk where she began to walk down the road. She was thin yet she seemed thick in all the area's that mattered.

Quickly he looked back at the small green house curious about the family that lived there. He felt guilty for checking out another man's wife, curious to find out about what kind of man had a wife like her. He felt odd, dirty; annoyed that he would invade her privacy by watching her, or wondering about her. Before everything that happened something as simple as watching someone go about their daily lives seemed so innocent and harmless. Now it felt dangerous, personal, almost like a sense of rape.

Despite his feelings he couldn't help it. She was the kind of woman a man noticed – not that he would- at least he noticed her in the strictest definition noticing someone. That had to be it, because he could not _notice her_ notice her. Why bother? Why even go done that road? His last relationship had left him tattered and bruised and done with love. Besides, in a neighborhood like this, one filled with two cars in the driveway and swing sets in the backyard, most people were married and living the American dream with two-point-four children. It was that kind of community. She looked like that kind of woman.

So no, in the matter of the woman next door, he had just noticed her and there was no _noticing,_ noticing involved.


	3. Chapter 3

Crazy Possessive, by Kaci Battaglia blared at full volume through the speakers as she sang along while absent mindedly tapping on the steering wheel. Her black BMW had a sound system that made most men jealous. She worked hard to afford this car, she saved up for a long time just for the down payment. Her father had been impressed for all of five minutes and her mother just rolled her eyes and called it a death trap.

It wasn't that she was seeking their approval or looking for some self accomplishment in material possessions, this was about her making a choice to live her life the way she wanted. She didn't need a boyfriend to give her things she could give herself. Her job gave her the money she needed to live comfortably and she was smart about her money to make every cent count. Her parents, while she loved them dearly tended to hover more than they should more than they did over her sister which in her opinion was in need of some hovering.

Her mother and father spent most of their time trying to control her, according to them she was the fuck up. Her with all the medals, plaques, awards and newspaper clippings was the daughter with a problem. Meanwhile her young sister got away with almost everything, from dating young, to dating a ton, to dating over her age and even the same sex. It was almost crazy to believe that her little sister was getting married before her. That her sexually deviant little sister was settling down for good, or so she claimed.

Her phone rang again and this time it was Sharpay instead, she turned the music and picked up the call via blue tooth. "Speak to me."

"I was thinking about this party later, I could really use your back up," Sharpay said pleadingly.

"I thought Taylor agreed to go."

"She back out last minute, the bitch went and got a date."

Gabriella rolled her eyes, "I'm honored to be your second choice."

Sharpay laughed on the other end, "You know it's not like that."

"Oh really?" Gabriella said as she leaned back in her seat, "Look going out with you normally ends in two ways: either you find this week's love of your life right off the bat and I catch an early cab home for a night of extra butter popcorn and bad cable reality shows; or I spend the entire night fending off the smitten males whose pheromones go on high alert the moment your big toe enters the room."

"What can I say, you know me so well."

Gabriella let out a laugh, "You know I hate going out on Saturdays, why can't you find someone else."

"Gabi, finding someone else and teaching them all about my dos and don'ts of wing-woman hood, before ten tonight is going to be impossible."

"This party starts at ten?"

"Well it starts at nine, but you know the important people show up late." She could almost see the 'duh?' expression on Sharpay's face.

"Right what was I thinking," Gabriella said with 'duh?' expression of her own. "Look I'll think about it call me back after my lunch with Sam."

"How is she doing with all that marital bliss?"

"She's Sam, I don't really think she thinks about it."

"Still no date to the wedding?"

"Not a candidate insight."

"All the more reason you should come out tonight with me. We have to find you a date to the wedding."

"When and if I find a date to this thing, it's going to be someone with a penis you're not going to meet," Gabriella said looking down at the time. She still needed to call her mother and get ready for her lunch.

"Aw come on, I have a right to interview who you're sacking it up with," Sharpay voice was playful with a serious undertone.

"Look in this plain Jane sad story about me finding love when my best friend is a curvy, blond man-magnet with a voice made for sex, I think I'll find out if they have any sticking power before they reach your level of needed clearance."

"Oh stop it," Sharpay said, "You're a hot sexy bitch, and any man would die to see you naked."

"That or die because they did," Gabriella said as she rolled her eyes, "Look I got to go, my mother's been after me about this damn dress and if I ignore her any longer she might just file a missing persons report."

"Alright have a good day and let me know if you get lucky later."

"Later Sharpay," Letting she hit the button on her steering wheel to end the call and turned her music back all the way up. Mentally she went over the items on her to do list one more time, she'd been to the dry cleaners, the grocery store, and the bank. Pulling into her neighborhood she continued to sing along to the music as she looked for her parking spot. "Fuck yeah," she whispered when she saw that the blue van had gone missing. Gabriella parked her car and shut it off. Now she had to put things away and take care of her mother who was still calling her every twenty-five minutes to remind her about the dress and the shoes.

Hearing the music suddenly die Troy curiously came around from the back to see the mystery woman from this morning getting out a black shiny BMW. His eyes widen as he watched her walk around to the trunk and retrieve grocery bags. What did her husband do to afford a car like that? Looking back at the green house he let out a sigh, he hadn't seen anyone else around the house all morning. Looking back at the woman she came up the path to her house with bags in her arms and she made her way up her stairs.

Deciding it might be a good time to introduce himself he looked down at his dirt covered pants and dust covered hands. Maybe now wasn't a good time after all. Not that he cared about what she would think of him, he just didn't want her first impression to be that he was some kind of guy who didn't bathe. Plus he wouldn't want to scare her by just walking up behind her while she was coming home from the grocery store. Although, that did remind him that he had to venture out at some point today to get food and maybe a case of beer before he starved to death. Going back to tossing out the empty boxes he continued his work eager to be unpacked before this afternoon.

Gabriella stocked her fridge and cradled the phone to her ear. "Hey mom," she said as she closed the fridge door.

"Are you aware it's before noon on a Saturday?" her mother voice came over the phone in shock.

"Yeah, I woke up a little early. I think I might have new neighbors," Gabriella said leaping up to sit on the counter and opening a fresh bottle of water.

"Have you met them yet?"

"No," Gabriella said leaning back to open her kitchen blinds which looked into the neighbor's backyard. All she could see was an arm throwing boxes into a trash can. "They took my parking, they woke me up and because of them I spilt coffee on my shirt," she said looking down at the stain.

"Seems like a rough morning."

"My neck is killing me," Gabriella said bringing the bottle to her lips.

"Well, all this bad news aside, did you get the dress yet?"

"I'm headed here next," Gabriella said capping the bottle. "I got to meet with Sam at one for lunch I still don't know what to get her for a wedding present."

"She's your little sister surly you can think of something thoughtful."

Gabriella sighed and looked over at her calendar. Her little sister Samantha was getting married in three weeks. In that time span she needed a date, a makeover, maybe even a new perspective on life. Her little sister was going to tie the knot before her. That alone was a personal drama she been dealing with ever since she heard the news.

"How are the girls?" Her mother's voice brought her back to the present. "I listened to the radio for a little while last night. It was interesting as usual; I think I fell asleep somewhere around nine."

"It's alright mom. Sharpay is good, Taylor and Chad are fine," she said with smile.

"Have you given you're father's friend any consideration for that job."

"Mom, I already have a job."

"I know dear,"

Did she? Gabriella frowned as she lifted the bottle for another sip.

"Your father wants to speak to you."

"Oh great here we go," Gabriella jumped down from the counter to stand up right on her own two feet sensing that she was going to need the inner support.

"I'd like for you to meet with the head of the Dillard Institute next week. They have an opening for a researcher."

"Dad I'm not interested?" Stress did a grinding little twist in her gut as Gabriella realized that her father wasn't going to be so easy to detour.

"You'll need to change jobs. Did you see today's paper? There's a write up about you and those girls in the paper. It's completely unacceptable."

Unacceptable. How often had she heard that over the years? Closing her eyes, Gabriella tried to breath past the knot in her chest. Why did she ever expect things to change?

"Are you paying attention young lady?"

"I'm not changing my job just because you think it's unacceptable."

"You work late hours and you're in that house all by yourself. You're mother worries herself sick about you."

"Well, tell her to stop worrying."

"Or why don't you grow up and stop acting so foolish, a young woman should not be airing her dirty laundry on the radio for everyone to hear."

"This conversation is pointless tell mom I'll call her later." Gabriella hung up the phone without a second thought. Her eyes shutting as she reached her hand up to rub her sore neck. Seriously what was it going to take for her parents to take her seriously? What was it going to take to find a date? Taylor was a young woman on the show, working all those odd hours on all things technical and even she found a love life. What the heck was it going to take for Gabriella? An apocalypse?

Gabriella looked at the clock she didn't have enough time to shower before her lunch with Sam, she was just going to have to deal with it. Gabriella capped her water bottle and threw it in the third blue bin on her left before she walked over to the table to grab her keys as soon as was on her way outside she heard some things from the house next door crash. "There goes the peace and quiet," she mumbled making her way to the car.

Troy looked down at the small piece of glass now shattered on the floor. "Well now it's a set of three cups not four," he said placing the other three glasses in the cabinet and then reaching for a broom to clean the mess. "Note to self shoes must be wore in the kitchen," he said placing the broken bits into the trash can. Looking around he noticed that piles of boxes were disappearing and he was feeling that almost done relief.

There was a knock on the door that startled him and Troy curiously made his way to the living room to answer it. Peeking out the side window he noted the man standing on his porch waiting to be let inside. "Who on earth is that?" When he opened the door he could see that the man was an African American with lots of hair he had tied back onto a ponytail. He was carrying a red and white shirt in his hands.

"Hey, Troy right?"

"Yeah," he said a little unsure as the man walked in without a further explanation. "And you are?"

"Chad Danforth," the man said looking around the living room at some of the left over boxes piled up by the staircase, "I'll tell you," he said with a half laugh, "when they gave me your address I was thrilled to see you're up here by Montez." Chad made his way into the kitchen, "I've always wondered what this place looked like on the inside."

"I'm sorry up by what?" Troy followed the man into his kitchen. "Is there some reason why you here?" Troy said looking at Chad.

"Well I'm your assistant coach and I thought it might be good if I check in and seen how you were settling in?" Chad looked inside one of the boxes on the table and Troy creased his brow as he looked at Chad with curiosity.

"They really just gave you my address?" he asked crossing his arms.

"No," he said with huff, "I just looked through your file."

"Oh well, that makes it so much more comforting," he said holding out a hand the trying his best to make that sound logical.

Chad smiled and looked at him with amusement. "Here," He tossed him the shirt in his hands. "It's an East High shirt hopefully it fits and no I'm not crazy," he added.

Troy caught the shirt, "Well, it was nice of you to bring this."

"I figured you might need some help settling in?" Chad looked around, "and I think I came just in time."

"It was worst this morning trust me?" Troy said with a smile.

"No problem, I know what it's like I just moved in with my girl last year and there were boxes everywhere I mean combining all our shit almost took us three weeks," Chad said with pain filled expression.

"Wow," Troy leaned his shoulder on the door way. "So I guess that makes you a master at unpacking."

"You bet."


	4. Chapter 4

Gabriella sat down in the booth across from Sam who was picking at her salad with a hard to read expression. Her little sisters features were more defined than Gabriella's. Her face had more edges which enhanced her beauty and made her always seemed older than she really was. Growing up they had always been close. It wasn't until Gabriella's senior, Sam's sophomore year at high school that the girls began to grow apart.

Boys, friends, bad crowds, and school functions slowly began to push the sisterhood bond that had them making forts together in their parent's living room apart. It was until recently that the two began talking again and their differences still caused them to bump heads every now and again. "Hey," Gabriella said with a soft smile as she shifted to get more comfortable in her seat.

"I already order one for you as well," Sam said with a sigh as she leaned back, "I'm getting tired of eating like rabbit, I can't wait to be done with this wedding and eat carbs again."

"Sam, you can eat carbs now, stop letting mom tell you what to do," Gabriella said with a frown. It was their mother's idea for them to diet for the wedding, she had wanted everyone to look fabulous for the wedding photos but if things kept going like this the wedding theme might as well be The Hunger Games.

"Mom says I need to do crunches to lift my butt," Sam frowned as she picked up her fork and shifted through her salad again.

Gabriella raised a brow, as she looked around at every one in the restaurant and then back at her sister's tiny frame. While Gabriella ran 3 miles five days a week to keep her figure her little sister had always been one to beige on junk food weekend after weekend without a single idea of carb remorse. Sam's butt was exactly where it should be at 25.

"Mom told me you were up early today."

"Not by choice trust me," Gabriella said as she rolled her eyes.

"So what's his name?" Sam inquired now interested in the reason.

The waitress showed up with Gabriella's salad and she stared at it with all the interest she could muster until the waitress was gone and she could show her true feelings towards the plate full unhappiness. "What's whose name?" Gabriella asked lifting her eyes from her plate to look up at Sam.

"The man that woke you up so early," Sam snickered, "I heard the show last night, did you call your hunky little high school boy after all?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes with mild amusement and some annoyance. The last thing she wanted to talk about was work, the last thing she also wanted to talk about was getting hit on by someone still in high school. Truth told it had been the most action she had going for her in long time. "I don't even know if it was a man and it was more like a sound that woke me up," Gabriella stuck her fork into her plate and sighed. "So tell me, how is the engaged and soon to be married life?"

Sam smiled as she dropped her fork with a loud clang as it hit the plate. "We found a place."

"That's a huge!" Gabriella said with a smile, "I bet you can't wait to get out of mom and dad's house."

"Oh my god, you have, like no idea," Sam said as she held out her hands in frustration, "Your mother,"

"Our mother," Gabriella correct.

"Your mother," Sam said with a raised brow, "tried to sit me down and give me the talk."

"The talk?" Gabriella said lifting her fork and leaning in towards her, "Does she know you lost it to Jimmy Thompson in the back of his mom's station wagon during junior prom?"

"No," she said with hushing noise, "No one knows that but you, jimmy and me."

Gabriella let out a huff as she leaned back in her seat, her parents just always thought the best of Samantha. She was the baby of the family, she could do no wrong, and she had no sinful thoughts or tendencies. Gabriella squeezed her thighs together in frustration as she bit her lip. Gabriella on the other hand had a different parental experience. According to her father Gabriella's virginity was lost in an orgy that happened within the 3 minutes he wasn't watching her like a hawk.

"The house is gorgeous, three bedrooms, a basement, furnished kitchen and a garage with one of those cute drive ways," Sam said lifting a green leaf to her lips.

"I wish I had one of those," Gabriella said thinking back to last night and the painful walk down two blocks just to get to her home from her car. If only she had a garage. It was ridiculous and it was all her neighbor's fault. Just like it was their fault she was up early on a Saturday.

"Who are you bringing to the wedding?" Sam asked as she moved some things around in her plate.

"Well, I think I'm just going to go it alone," Gabriella said looking down at her own plate and shifting something around on her plate as well. "Getting a date for a wedding is so personal and over steps like all of the relationship rules," she said only half serious.

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it?" Gabriella said with a raised brow as she stared at the table, "I mean well let's say I meet a guy and ask him to the wedding, I mean aside from the devastation of meeting my parents, he'll in family photos, he'll see me in a bridesmaid grown and he know instantly that I'm miserable in life and desperate." Gabriella cringed as she thought about it, "Before you know I'll be committed to doing all kinds of kinky fuckery with him as a thank you for accompanying me when in actually I just want to go home pull out the Ben and Jerry's and watch pretty woman."

"Right," Sam said with a raised brow as she perched her lips in shocked expression.

"Plus,"

"There's more?" Sam said placing her fork down as she placed her hands flat on the table in front of her.

"Think about it, what's going to happen come your tenth wedding anniversary and Aunt Erma is asking me whatever happened to that guy I brought to the wedding and then I'm flooded with memories or worst I have to explain it to some poor guy who's madly in love with me." Gabriella said taking a breath at the end. "I wouldn't want to hurt him like that."

"Well, if you're going to put it like that," Sam said with an exasperated grunt.

"Face it, a wedding is the worst thing in the world for a new couple. You might as well go for coffee and sit there naked as a first date," she said shaking her head. "Too, soon."

"You know if your interested Peter has a friend who-"

"Stop right there," Gabriella said holding up her fork, "I'll get my own date to your wedding thank you very much."

"No you won't."

"But I could."

"But you won't."

"Just tell me something does Peter ever run out of friends, I mean, eventually I will have to have met all of them, right?" Gabriella poked at her salad frowning at the tomatoes on her plate. That was the problem about being a single girl these days, everyone had a friend. Gabriella bit the inside of her cheek as she went through her own catalog of friends. Where were people getting all these friends?

"I just want you to have a date and be happy, even if it is the self-destruction of some future relationship with someone who has serious issues," Sam said lifting a fork to her lips.

"Who to say I'm not already happy," Gabriella said with grunt, "I could be just fine living alone and doing what I please, when I please, and with who I please."

"Gabi," Samantha said placing a hand on hers, "just promise me you won't buy a cat."

"I won't. Trust me, I heard about this one lady who had a cat and when she died the cat ate her." Gabriella shuttered, "I refuse to be alone with a cat," she finished lifting a glass of water to her lips and sipped.

They were both quite for a moment as they picked at their food. "I've been thinking about dad," Sam said finally breaking the silence a sad smile. "He's getting worst, you know."

Gabriella frowned, she wouldn't know anything about it. She genuinely avoided her father at all cost because they didn't get along so well. She loved her father, she always would, and her childhood hadn't been so bad. Gabriella nodded and looked down at her plate. "What can we do?"

"Doctor said his diabetes is getting to him," Samantha said looking down at her food "His feet are always so cold and the other day I noticed one of his toe nails were black."

"Dad's strong I think he'll pull though," Gabriella lied as she thought about who they were speaking about. Her father was a stubborn strong willed man who'd rather die in the comforts of his home than complain about something as little as a cold and numb feet. Her mother had complained to her about the very same thing weeks ago. Gabriella was still at a lost about what she was expected to do with this information.

"Mom has been watching him like a hawk," Sam crossed her arms pushing her salad more onto the table. "Do you know he keeps a stash of Hershey bars hidden in the bottom drawer of the fridge?"

Gabriella let out a huff as she pushed a baby tomato around in her plate. "That doesn't surprise me," she said shaking her head. "Well, you know how mom is about that stuff. We can rest assured he'll be okay if she has anything to say about it."

"I hope so, because I don't know what we would do without him," Sam said staring off in the distance as she placed a hand on her stomach as if to hold down feelings at the thought.

"Hey," Gabriella being the older sister reached her hand out and took hers, "Sam. You're getting married to a wonderful man who loves you in 27 days and dad will be there to walk you down the aisle," she said comfortingly. "It's all going to be fine."

"Thanks," Sam said with a small smile.

"How about we chuck the rabbit food and split a slice of double fudge truffle cake?" Gabriella said giving Sam's hand a small squeeze.

"God yes!" Sam said with a laugh as both girls giggled in secret about their rebellious delight for chocolate.

Later on that day after lunch Gabriella came back with her dress and dry cleaning. After parking in her usual spot she came up the walk and once inside the house she immediately went upstairs to shower. The water was warm as it slid down her body making her muscles relax. Her neck was so tense and she just didn't know what to do to get the pressure off but she was feeling it and it was taking its toll.

As soon as she was out of the shower she changed into a pair of shorts and got into a warm long sleeve t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and out of the way from her face. Walking outside onto her porch she took a deep breath and sat down on her big outside chair and opened her book to begin reading. The wind lightly blew as she got herself more comfortable in the big cushioned chair her mind focused on reading. It was joyous; she couldn't remember the last time she had done this. The further she slipped into the story the more she relaxed and felt the hold on her stiff body loosen.

Suddenly the motor of a machine broke the silence making her make believe world seep into the reality. Gabriella looked up from her book and she watched the back of some guys head as he pushed a lawnmower around the yard.

"Are you serious?" Gabriella said under her breath. Gabriella rolled her eyes and got up from her spot retreating to the inside of her home where she could just block out the outside world all together. Closing all her windows she plopped down on the couch with just the lamp on and continued her reading.

Troy who had finished the lawn looked at his work and seen progress. So far he made a half-a-dozen trips to the local charity shop, unloading books, and china, and knickknacks. He figured there would be many more trips in his future, too, since he cleared out only one of the bedrooms and part of the living room with Chad's help. As soon as Chad left after they unpacked all of the boxes he was happy to get a head start on pulling weeds and raking the lawn and he finished the job with a nice mow so that it was almost the same to the house next door. Troy walked over to the backyard driveway and put the lawnmower in the back in the shed which turned out to actually have a lot of useful equipment inside. He made sure that the back gate was locked before taken a moment to stretch out a kink in his back. He also noticed that the sun was setting from the sky. He hadn't eaten all day and his stomach was rumbling with that reminder.

Troy went inside sorting through what he had brought back from his last trip into the town area. Everything out here was well spaced out, all the stores and shops were in the center of town and if he remember what Chad had said the actual city was more to his left where he had driven through to get to the house last night. "What is on the menu tonight?" Troy said leaning into the fridge and poking around. "Pizza pockets it is," he said in a low tone know it was either that or microwavable burrito. Grabbing a microwave plate he emptied out half the bag and then popped it into the microwave. Hitting the timer he pushed start and then walked over to the fridge to as he put away the rest of the bag he noticed the lights flicker.

"Oh no," he said closing the freezer door. As he took a step away from the fridge the lights flickered again. "Shit, shit, shit," he hurried over to the microwave to stop it but before he could get there the room went black. It was silent for a moment. The house settled and Troy heard a faint scream from next door. Alarmed he raced for the back door and jumped the short fence that separated to the two yards.

Gabriella clicked the lamp on and off and there was nothing. No light at all. The house was completely dark and she felt the pain in her neck get worst. Looking around the dark room she let out a loud scream of anger. As the room settled into the quiet once again she got up and walked into the kitchen to get a flashlight. It was just her luck today of all days. It was like there was a higher power that was against her finishing this book.

Before she could get to the drawer where she kept her flashlights there was a loud knock on the door and Gabriella jumped in surprise and fear. Looking at the shadow she noticed it was a man at her door. The fear intensified. Did he cut the power?

"Hello?" said the voice on the other side of the door. "Is someone in there?"

Gabriella walked slowly to the door and she jumped back as the Door knob jiggled.

"Hello?" the voice boomed once again.

Gabriella was about to reach for the doorknob when the figure turn around and made his way down the steps. Gabriella did a sigh of relief until she noticed the shadow of a man head walk before her kitchen window. He was headed for her back door and Gabriella felt fear shake inside her as she watched him pass the other windows.

Outside Troy looked at the house it seemed like no one was home but he was sure he heard a scream. Looking in the windows the house was black. Maybe by tripping his own wires he caused a black out for this house as well which means whoever was inside might have been doing something when the lights went out. What if they had fallen down the stairs? What if they cut themselves making dinner and now they were bleeding to death?

Troy jiggled the knob on the backdoor. "Are you in there?" he called.

"Go away!" came a muffled voice from inside.

Troy looked at the door with a confused look. "Are you okay in there?"

He heard something fall and grunt, "Fine."

"Do you want to open the door?" he asked placing both hands on the door frame. "I just want to know you're alright."

"Go away!" The voice called. It was a female's voice and she sounded scared.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Gabriella shrugged her shoulder and rolled her eyes. Sure, of course he would try to lure her into a false sense of security. Wasn't that what they all said before they chopped you into bits. Getting her flash light she made the decision that she should run next door for help because nothing was stopping this man from breaking a window and letting himself in and when he did she didn't want to be there like cheese on a silver platter. The door knob jingled once more and Gabriella opened the side window carefully. She needed to get out.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," She called as she got on to the counter and started passing her feet out the window.

The man was still at her back door and she could tell he was bigger than her. In a fight she would lose horribly.

With her flashlight in her mouth she jumped and landed with a thud.

Troy who was backing away from the back door and about to give up heard the thud. It was followed by the sound of someone sprinting. He listened as whatever it was jumped the fence and ran onto his property. Making his own dash he jumped the fence and made his way to his back door, which was shut in his face before he could get there.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered, he'd was just been doped. Looking at door with a flood of annoyance and anger he pounded on it. Someone was in his house. Reaching in his pocket he dug out his keys. Unfortunately he only had the front door. This was why he needed a dog. First thing tomorrow he was going to the local pound. Walking around the house he came to his front door and unlocked it letting himself in.

"Hello," He said quietly taking baby steps inside.

Walking slowly to the kitchen he heard movement then a curse. As soon as he was at the entrance of the kitchen he looked inside, hesitant he walked into the kitchen. Before he could get out a word he felt something hit him in the side then hit him again. Holding up his hands he struggled see his attacker they were shorter than he was and they were whacking him repeatedly with something slender. Reaching for it he grabbed what was a wooden spoon and pried it from the hands of his attacker. "Are you crazy?" he said grabbing a hold of his attacker's wrist as he pulled the person closer to him.

"I've called the police!"


	5. Chapter 5

Blue orbs met brown orbs as they stared at each other in the dark, the fear and panic evident in her eyes as she looked up at him unsure about what was going to happen next. In the dark her features were soft; a strand of hair was over her face making her seem like a thief or a prisoner of some kind. He recognized her as the woman from this morning. She smelled like cake, like a vanilla iced cake sitting in the window tempting him to come closer. He didn't instead he stood still, trying to catch his breath and holding her at a distance in case she began to kick.

Gabriella looked up at the man who was holding her by the wrist. She couldn't make him out in the darkness of kitchen. What little light did come through the back window was tainted by a later of dust grim and webs she noticed in disgust when she was in search of her weapon. Her eyes were wide open and her terror was dissipating slowly. He wasn't as intimidating or rabid has she had feared. Oddly this man looking down at her made her feel anything but terrified or about to be killed in a bloody slaughter. Gabriella looked at her wrist which was pulsing due to lack of blood flow. "You're hurting me," she finally said in a low voice.

Troy loosened his grip and after a moment of hesitant let go. He watched as the woman took her wrist in her other hand and rubbed it. "I'm sorry, you were hitting me with a spoon."

She recognized his voice from the man outside her door. A wave of foolishness came over her as she took a step back from him. "You the new neighbor aren't you?" she asked.

"Did you really call the cops?"

She shook her head, "You don't have a phone."

Troy raised his brow, something about her was familiar to him. It was as if he heard that voice before but couldn't place it. "I'm sorry can we rewind a moment." he said making a backward motion with his hands, "To the part where you hit me with a wooden spoon in my own house. Or maybe why you ran from your house into mine and then locked me out?"

"I'm a girl, give or take a 120 or 139 pounds alone in my house and the lights go off. Next thing I know there is a man at my door jingling knobs and asking me to let him in," she said holding up her hands. "I've seen enough horror films to know that none of that means you're interested in borrowing a cup of sugar." She took some steps back, putting distance between them and leaning back on the cabinet.

Troy nodded, "That's fair. Where's your husband?"

"What?" she said with a huff as she looked at him with confusion. Her body leaned back and she let out a laugh. "What on earth makes you think I'm married?"

Troy was at a standstill. He didn't know what to say. He thought she was married because she lived in a family home, because her house looked well kept, because she was attractive, because no women he ever known drove a BMW. All of those reasons were not the right thing to say. So he shrugged.

"I'm not married," she said with a sigh, "what about you?"

"Single."

"How sexy, two single people in a blackout," she said with a grunt. "By the way welcome to neighborhood."

Troy was confused despite the smirk on his face as he looked over at her. There was something about her he just instantly liked. He found that he was amused, confused about what was going on but amused as well.

"So any ideas,"

"The wiring in this place is pretty weak I'll have to go downstairs and reset the box." Troy said looking at the basement door. "I haven't been in the basement yet, so this could take a while," Troy looked around the kitchen a little unsure.

"What's the hold up?"

"I can't see and I haven't unpacked a flashlight yet," Troy said a little annoyed by her attitude.

"Here," she said reaching into her back pocket and handing him her flashlight, "At least one of us is prepared."

"Right," Troy said taking the flashlight from her hand. Turning it on he shined on her taking advantage of the ability to see his attacker up close. "Want to do me a favor?"

"If I say no?" Gabriella held up a hand to shield the light going into her eyes.

"Just shout when the power comes back on," Troy said rolling his eyes as he began to descend the stairs. The woman was incredibly rude, she was obnoxious, ridiculous and dangerous with a wooden spoon. As he made his way to the bottom of the stairs he looked around the dark setting. If he hadn't had her flashlight he wouldn't be able to see the hand in front of his face down here.

Shining his light he looked at the boxes and junk that was stored in the basement, there was even more furniture down here. Walking through he found a shelf with a bunch of jars. Shining his light he realized they were tools. The top shelf had jars filled with nails, the next one down had nuts and bolts and next to that was a cup with three screw drivers. Everything was caked under a layer of dust and he frowned as he looked around the rest of the room. "My grandmother was a pack rat," he mumbled as he kicked at old box by his feet.

"What's taking so long?" her voice called from upstairs.

Troy jerked in surprise pointing the light at the stairs, "There's a lot of junk down here," he called up as he moved the light along the wall looking for the power box.

"Your house is cold!"

"And you're annoying," he murmured as he found the power box on the far wall, with a sigh he began moving boxes out his way so he could reach the box.

Upstairs Gabriella looked around the kitchen, afraid to touch anything for fear of catching anything from the grim that seemed to cover everything. "This is so gross," she murmured trying her best to stand completely still.

"It looks like the wiring is connected somehow to your house to, I'm going to have reset your box as well," his voice was faint as he shouted from the basement.

"Oh goody," she said crossing her arms as she rubbed them vigorously to restore some heat in her body.

"Is it on?" he called.

"I would have said something," she yelled back as she looked around in the dark kitchen. When she brought the place next door three years ago this property hadn't looked as abandoned as it had been in last few months. It felt as vacant as it looked with what seemed to be sadness and neglect. She wondered about his intentions. Was he fixing the place up? Leaving it as is? Selling it? Keeping it?

Shifting her weight she leaned against the counter a little more bracing herself for the long hall. Whatever he was doing down there it was obviously taking him a lot longer than either one of them expected.

"Are you alright down there?" Gabriella called not having heard anything for a moment. Deciding to move towards the door to the basement Gabriella took a step to her right and winced as she felt a sharp pain in her foot. "Son of a bitch," she mumbled.

It was just then that the lights flickered three short times before coming on completely. "It's on!" she called as she winced and lifted her foot to see the cause of the sudden pain. Lifting herself up onto the counter she picked up her foot and looked down with a frown as she noticed a piece of glass was sticking out of her foot.

When Troy came up the stairs he froze in the doorway as he watched her sitting on his counter top by the sink. Her shorts were ridding up leaving most of her thighs exposed. In the light she looked fuller, more like the spitfire he envisioned her to be and less like the meek little wife he thought she had been. Her skin was a medium caramel cream color which made all her features seem smoother and more graceful.

Her hair which was in a sloppy mess above her head had strands coming down on the left side of her face. In the struggle between them he remember feeling it against his hand as he took the wooden spoon away. He was better to keep his distance from this woman, the trouble emanating off her skin was sending up all the warning signs.

"Well don't just stand there, come over here and help me," She said looking at him with an annoyed expression.

"What's wrong?" he asked walking in her direction but pausing before he got to close.

"I have a piece of glass in my foot from your kitchen floor," she said looking at him with annoyance.

"Oh" Troy said not wanting to come any closer to her than he already was. He learned his lesson the hard way about woman and from that point on had declared a perimeter that kept him at a good distance away, "Are you going to be alright?"

"I don't know are you going to help me get it out before or after they have to amputate it?" she asked with annoyed expression, "Do you have any tweezers?"

"Tweezers,"

"Just get over here and take it out!"

Troy jumped as he quickly came over to her foot taking it in his hand as he examined the piece of glass in her foot and the slight trail of blood.

"Hold on it's in there a little deep," he said crouching a little so he could see it better. Carefully he used his finger nails to quickly pull out the chunk of glass in her foot. He felt guilty about it, knowing he should have swept better the other day when he dropped the glass.

Gabriella almost flinched when his skin touched hers. His hands were warm big and made her foot look incredibly small. Up close in the light he was a very good looking man, in fact he was ten times hotter than he was in the dark hovering over her as a might be mass murder. Her eyes traveled up his arms, he was covered in dirt and grime just like man who been gardening all day. He smelled like cut grass, even had a few blades of grass in his hair.

"I got it."

"God, can this day get any worse," she said look at his hand as he held the glass up for her to see, "I don't need a tetanus shot do I?"

"No I don't think so," Troy said putting the little chunk of glass on the counter top, "I think you'll live."

"Thank you," she said with a small smile.

Troy nodded as he reached for a fresh paper towel and pressed it on the spot where the glass had been. "No problem it's my fault."

"Not going to fight you on that one," Gabriella said a little irritated.

Troy raised a brow as he looked up at her with bewilderment. This woman was probably unbelievable. "You know if you hadn't run over here like a barefoot lunatic and locked me outside my own house you never would have been in this position," he said standing up right to look her in the eyes.

"And if you hadn't of cut my power and then banged on my door like a serial killer I wouldn't have been scared."

"How do you even know what a serial killer's knock would sound like?" he said exasperatedly pulling the paper towel away from her foot.

"A lot like someone jiggling the doorknob and pounding on the door," she countered yanking the paper towel away from him and pressing it down on her wound.

Troy rolled his eyes as he leaned forward and lifted her off the counter she yelped from the unexpected movement as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I can walk you know."

"There might still be glass on the floor," he said with a frown as he made his way out of the kitchen.

Gabriella leaned against him, his body solid against hers, "You know if I didn't know any better I'd say you were just looking for an excuse to touch my ass," she said as they made their way into the living room.

"Trust me, I have no intention of touching you anywhere I simply want you out of my house," he said putting her down in the living room where he could find a clear spot.

Her lips pulled into a frown as she raised a brow at him, "Well aren't you just a tall glass of manners and charm." When he didn't say anything she turned and began limping to the front door. "Well you're going to have to lift me so I can climb in through the window," she said with annoyance, "My doors are all locked."

"You know for a girl home all alone, your survival instincts suck," Troy said watching her narrow her eyes at him over her shoulder.

"I ran over to your house and I got in, what does that says about your security system?"

"I caught you didn't I?"

She huffed as she moved faster down his steps across his front lawn to get into her own yard. Once they were at the side window of the house she let out another huff. "You know it's your fault any of this happened."

"Is that right?" Troy said tucking his hand in his pocket.

"Yes, in fact my whole day as been one annoyance after the other since you came along," she muttered as she looked up at the window.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that."

"Yeah well let's get this over with," she said lifting her arms, "Lift me."

Shoving the flashlight in his back pocket Troy stood behind her and without effort she was up in the air and face to face with her window. Gabriella pushed the window open a little more as she pulled herself up.

"If I didn't know better," he said pushing her up a little higher. "I'd think you were using me because you wanted my hands on your body," he said with a smirk.

"Keep dreaming," She said looking down at him, "I hear it's healthy." Gabriella grunted as she gave herself a final push and hoisted herself inside.

Troy watched as she flawlessly entered the window, "I'm going to the front door," he called up hopping she could hear him. Walking around the house to the front door he let out a sigh as he thought about this woman next door who was reeking habit on his evening. The sooner this was over with the sooner he could go back home and take a shower. His appetite was lost and his patience was slowly slipping as well. The kicker was he didn't even know her name. He crossed his arms as he stood on her porch waiting for her to open the door. What was taking her so long?

When the door finally did open she was standing there in the doorway looking at him expectantly. There was a glimmer in her eyes, a mischievous way about her that made him momentarily for why he was there.

"Took you long enough," he said letting walking past her inside. Troy looked around the house and noticed it was almost the same layout as his own. "This is nice." He said looking at all the shades of oak and green with hints of white, "seems very earthy."

"Thanks, looks better in the light," she said motioning toward her basement door, "The power box is behind some old fishing equipment, between two shelving units, Knock yourself out."

Gabriella watched him walk towards the door as he retrieved her flashlight from his back pocket and began to descend the stairs. With a sigh she turned from the door and limped into her kitchen where she retrieved her first aid kit. Pulling out a chair she tended to her foot as best she could. Her eyes wondering every so often to the basement door.

Letting out a breath of air after she placed the band-aid over the small wound she leaned back in her chair and took a deep breath. That was when her cell phone went off. Jerking upright she got up and headed for the living room where her book and cell phone rested on the coffee table. Picking it up she brought it to her ear, "Hey,"

"Hey are you coming out or what?"

"My power went out and my new neighbor is in my basement right now resetting the power box," she said crossing her arms as she sat down on the couch.

"So come out after they leave," Sharpay pleaded, "You need a wedding date remember?"

"Exactly, how am I going to find wedding date material in booty call city?" Gabriella said as she looked back at the kitchen, what was he doing down there?

"Then make a list, just write down everything the prefect wedding date should be and I'll go shopping for you."'

"I'm not letting you fix me up again, the last time you did it he kept calling me the Mrs."

"I thought you wanted a man who was open to the idea of a relationship and didn't run off screaming at the prospect."

"Telling you he loves you or introducing you to his family would be so cute if he did it after six months. After six minutes, not so much."

"Gabriella Marie Montez you put on your little black dress and get your man hunting ass down here."

Gabriella let out a groan as she fell into the couch cushion, "Fine, give me 15 minutes." Not waiting for a response she hung up the phone and just as she pushed herself up the lights came on and Gabriella smiled. "Amen," she whispered.

"You know, I'm going to call the electric company and have them look at our wiring, I'm sure this might be fixable," he said coming back into the room.

"Wonderful," she said pushing herself up from the couch and motioning him towards the door.

"In the meantime I won't be using my microwave," he said with a smile. For the first time he let out a sigh of relief as he looked around the living room in the light, she was right. Some clothes were draped over the chair in the living room. His glaze slipped away but not before he'd noted the delicate black lace of a bra dangling over the chair's back, the cups still curved to the shape of her breast.

"Great now if you don't mind I have things to do," she said holding open the front door.

"Are you seriously kicking me out of your house?" he said confused by her current attitude.

"I guess I am," she said holding out her hand to motion for him to walk through the door.

"Troy, by the way," he responded in a dead pan voice as he handed her the flashlight.

"Thanks Troy, bye Troy," she said watching him walk through the door.

"Right, Night."

Before he could turn around to see her face the door slammed shut and he jerked back. Troy had to think about it, but he was pretty sure that no one had ever slammed a door in his face before. Not even an angry ex-girlfriend. So much for easing the concerns of his friendly neighbor, not that there was anything friendly about her, in fact in his brief experience with his neighbor. He determined she was someone he'd be better off staying away from. If he had to guess he'd say that she was the same age as him and judging by her firm, lean body, there was nothing remotely damsel in distress about her. Nothing soft or warm or welcoming about her either.

From the second she'd opened the door she wanted him gone. He'd felt the force of her will like a hand shoving him away. She made a fool of him for trying to do the right thing in the first place. He wouldn't make that mistake again, not where she was concerned.

Gabriella looked up at all the many different bras that hung from the ceiling including one of her own from a few months back that she discarded for the collection. The place was packed with the crowd spilling onto the back patio to enjoy the warm night and the music was thumping at a gotta-shout level. Crossing her legs she looked over as Sharpay made her way over through the crowd leaving behind her dance partner who looked disappointed to be left all alone.

A path cleared as the six foot tall Sharpay, platinum blond hair hanging past her shoulders, wiggled her way to the bar. Sharpay never partied alone, although she could, she always needed a bumper. She hated going out to the bars. Most of her time was spent either dancing with Sharpay or glued to a stool filtering out the many losers who came up to ask about her. Heaven forbid someone notice her five foot four, dark haired friend with the thick ankles. With a sigh she looked down at her martini she took the olive and placed it between her teeth as she pulled out the tooth pick.

"So, this wedding date?" Sharpay said hoisting herself up on the stool beside her and wiggling to adjust her skirt. "What are your intentions?"

"Intentions?" Gabriella furrowed her brows as she leaned in closer to hear her over the music.

"I'm here!" Taylor announced as she wrapped her arms around both girls.

"I thought you had a date night tonight?" Sharpay said with a squeal as she jumped off her stool to give Taylor a hug.

Gabriella lifted her glass for a long sip as she looked back for Chad who was talking to someone over his shoulder.

"We did, but Chad has this guy from work he's trying to impress so we decided to bring him here," Taylor said leaning forward to motion for the bartender.

"Check that out, we have a prospect!" Sharpay said with a smile as she looked over at Gabriella with excitement.

"No we don't," Gabriella said placing her glass down.

"Is he married?" Sharpay asked Taylor as she plucked a pen out of a nearby jar.

"Nope."

"Job? Insurance? How's his teeth?" Sharpay rattled off her checklist as she began writing things down on a napkin with the bar's promotional pen.

"Part-time, didn't come up, and they look great," Taylor answered as she looked down at the napkin Sharpay had in front of her. "What are we doing?"

"She wants me to make a shopping list for my wedding date," Gabriella said turning her attention to Chad again who was blocking her view of Mr. Colgate, not that she was interested, or that desperate.

"How else are we going to find what you're looking for?" Sharpay said matter of fact as she held up the list, "Alright, Must have a job, must have health insurance, must have good teeth, must be single, and not clingy."

"That. Is ridiculous," Gabriella said turning her attention to the napkin.

"What about having his own car or at least his own place, in case the wedding date turns into a something a little more?" Taylor said reading the list over Sharpay's shoulder.

"Right, bringing him back to her house is risky," Sharpay said with frown, "The morning after is so much easier when you can just get up leave."

"There will be no morning after," Gabriella said leaning in to see the items being careless thrown together, "Look all I want is someone who is honest, respectful, has stability and good 401k."

"Well, that and a really big-"

"Hello Chad," Gabriella said with a louder than necessary voice as she lifted her glass.

"Gabriella, I have someone I want you to meet."

"Of course you do," she said lifting her glass closer to her lips for a sip.

"Troy, this is our dear friend Gabriella, good news she's actually-'

"My next door neighbor," Troy finished for him as he came to stand beside him.

Gabriella mentally kicked herself and because that wasn't going to be enough she bit down hard on the inside of her cheek.

"You guys met already?" Chad said with a relieved smile, "Awesome now we can all just hang out!"

"I think we should go dance and let them get to know each other," Sharpay squealed as she jumped off her stool and drug Chad and Taylor away to dance.

Gabriella brought her glass up for another long sip as she watched him over the rim of her glass. He was brooding, tall and in the dim lighting his blue eyes only looked more taught. They were hardly going to be bosom buddies. "Well, if it isn't Mr. Sunshine," she decided when she put her glass down.

"Gabriella," he said in low huff, "Suits you."

Placing her palms on her thighs she wiped them from the sweat of her glass and held out her hand. "Maybe this would be a good time to start over?"

"I agree, I also agree that starting over means that you owe me a drink," Troy said with a short nod.

"Done," she said lifting her glass towards the bartender and ordering two more.

The bartender came over with their drinks quickly and leaned over the bar, "you with the blonde? Does she want a drink?"

Gabriella sighed, she'd almost forgotten about her man-nip best friend; even from across the room she had an everlasting effect. "Alcohol doesn't mix well with her medication, and considering how contagious she is, we don't want to mess with her meds."

The bartender looked concerned for about a minute until someone called for him and he was gone, leaving their drinks on the counter. Picking up one of the drinks she handed it to Troy who was now sitting in the stool beside her.

"What does she have?" Troy asked leaning into be heard.

"What?" Gabriella asked raising her voice a little louder.

"Your friend, the blonde, what does she have?"

Gabriella jerked back in understanding then leaned back in again, "Nothing. She's fine," she said lifting her glass and taking a sip.

Troy frowned as he looked out towards the dance floor, he seemed to be confused, but she wasn't really interested in explaining Sharpay's shopping list. Unfortunately, a moment after he seemed to settle with no further explanation another came over. He was skinny and tall with shaggy blond hair covering his eyes.

"Hey, that girl you're with?" He shoved his hands in his pockets as Gabriella admired his highlights.

Cocking her head to the right in mock confusion she responded, "Which girl?"

He pointed at Sharpay's golden head sticking up above the crowd as she bounced around to the joy of every male around her watching. "That one. The blonde. What's her deal? Is she single?"

Gabriella placed her drink down and looped her hands around her knee as she kicked her foot a bit. "I guess you could say she's single. But her court-ordered therapist has forbidden her from dating men for a while, otherwise, it's back to county lockup." Gabriella shrugged as she let out a sigh, "but you never know, she might bend the rules. Just don't give her your real name. It's really hard to change your identity if things don't work out."

"Uh, thanks." He scratched his head and walked to the opposite side of the bar, stealing a glance over his shoulder at Sharpay with a frightful expression.

Troy leaned forward, "What are you doing?"

Gabriella glance over at him and turned towards him a little bit more. "Sharpay finds the ones she's interested in. I just keep the rest out of her way."

"How kind of you," Troy said brining his drink up to his lips.

"I like to think so," Gabriella lifted her drink up as well.

"And how do you know she wouldn't have wanted to meet that nice young man? He might have lovely eyes under all that hair."

Gabriella smiled as the martini made its way down her throat giving her a warm tingle. "She has a shopping list, it's like her bible and I have it memorized."

"And she wouldn't object to these inspired excuses you're using?" he asked leaning in.

"She thinks it's hilarious. I tell her all about them at the end of the night and she picks her favorite. We've been friends for a long time. If I didn't love her so much, I'd hate her." Gabriella said lifting the tooth picked olive to her lips and then holding it between her teeth as she pull out the toothpick.

"So why are you her social director?"

"Social director?" Gabriella paused as she thought about it, "I like that."

Troy picked up the napkin Sharpay had left at the bar, "Is this her shopping list?"

Gabriella could feel the bright red on her cheeks, "No, that one's suppose to be mine."

Troy raised a brow and looked down at the list his eyes did a hard stop at the last item which was circled twice. _Huge cock. _Looking back up at her he nodded slowly, "This is a very specific list."

Gabriella took it from him and looked down at the list herself, "Oh my god!" she said beginning to tear it apart, "I didn't make this," she said quickly as she threw the pieces of it into an empty glass nearby.

"I assumed," Troy said with amusement. Looking out onto the dance floor where Chad had disappeared he let out a sigh and lifted his drink again glancing over at his neighbor while he watched her hanging her head in what was probably embarrassment.

Gabriella was about to say something to save herself when another contestant came up to her on her left. "Can I buy you a drink?"

Gabriella let out a low sigh as she pondered this bait-and-switch routine. He'll pretend he was interested in her and then make a move for her friend. She'd fallen for a few times but she's wasn't a fool anymore. "Sure, I was about to order a Johnny Walker Black. A double, straight up." she said rattled to the bartender, knowing he could afford it. He was wearing Hollister Jeans for crying out loud.

His eyes bulged but he nodded to the bartender and handed over his card.

"Thanks," Gabriella said with a small smile. He was tall and well built, with a cute goatee, and might have had a shot with Sharpay if not for the tongue piercing. There were certain body parts she considered sacred. The tongue was one of them, so this guy was out of the running.

When the bartender returned he placed the drink in front of her and she nodded her thank you. That was when Mr. Bait-and-Switch went in for the kill. "So, what can you tell me about your friend?"

Gabriella blinked a few times as she wrapped her hand around her drink, "Who?"

He gave her a look, "Blondie out there. I saw you come in with her. What's her deal?"

Gabriella widened her eyes, "Oh my gosh! Are you interested?"

Trying to hold back a smile he fingered his goatee. "Well, yeah. Sure."

"You're just her type." Gabriella clapped her hands together as she squealed and wiggled around on the barstool. "She is going to be so excited. They just let her out of the facility." Gabriella placed a hand on his arm, "She hasn't been out in the general population for what, four years now? Be careful with her, they say she still has a twitch but as long as you don't come in on her left she won't scream."

He pulled his arm away and stepped back. "Maybe it's not the best time for her right now."

"Really?" Gabriella pouted. "Darn it."

He eyed the drink he brought her and then wandered away. Troy leaned over on her right; his mouth was right next to her ear. "Why not just say she has a boyfriend?" his breath was hot on her cheek.

Gabriella turned to him and handed him the drink Mr. Bait-and-switch had gotten her. "Because then they try even harder."

One corner of his mouth quirked up, "Why not say she's your girlfriend?"

Gabriella cocked an eyebrow, "Then they're even more interested."

Troy let out a laugh "Must be hard, coming up with so many reasons."

"Not really. Sometimes I try to keep a theme to my excuses. Like tonight they all might have a criminal element. That'd be fun. Or maybe I'll stick with the medical and mental excuses." Gabriella lifted her martini glass and drained the contents.

"A woman with a PhD in lying. Impressive. Need a refill or will you be enjoying the top-shelf whiskey you stuck that poor chump with?"

"Lying for a good cause doesn't count. I like to think of it as creative protection," she said with shrug, "And you can actually have that, you look more like a whiskey drinker than a martini man. Beside I owe you one for not calling the police on me."

"Thank you," Troy said lifting the glass and taking a small sip. "I hope she provides you with the same courtesy when losers come looking for you."

That earned him a steely glaze. "You think I can only attack losers?"

He groaned and looked up at the ceiling and all those bras. "You know what I mean, a guy with a lame line, like all the idiots here."

Frowning, Gabriella rolled her eyes, "It's never really been a problem."

"Oh, only the A-plus specimens with huge genitalia show up for you?"

Gabriella turned a little so she was facing the bar. "Knock it off."

"What?" he reached for her arm but hesitated before touching her and decided it be better if he didn't.

"Come on, I don't look like Sharpay. I don't exactly have guys banging down the door for Me." Or knocking at all. It had been a while.

Another guy interrupted them, "Hey are you friends with the hot chick?"

Gabriella pointed at Troy, "that's her boyfriend. He can tell you all about her."

The guy held up his hands and stepped back "Sorry dude."

"No problem," Troy said as he watched him walk away, looking back at Gabriella he let out a sigh. "Come on, you can't seriously believe that that's all guys are interested in? Looks? We're not all Neanderthals"

"Its hardwired into your brain, or chemistry, or whatever, to look for the most attractive female mate. Haven't you ever read those studies about men preferring a certain hip-to-waist ratio, which happens to be the most fertile ratio? Then there's the clear skin and shinny hair that suggest good, healthy genes. You can't help it. It's in your nature to want the most attractive mate who will best allow you to spread your seed." Gabriella shook her head, "and for that reason, no man would ever pick me over Sharpay. She's reproductive perfection."

By this time, Troy was pinching the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. "You are so wrong."

"Don't blame me blame society." Just then some tapped her shoulder and she turned to see him.

"Ah, 'allo love. I was wondering if you knew that lovely blond girl tearing about on the dance floor?" he had an accent that sounded British, but wasn't exactly. Sharpay was in love with accents.

"I do know her. Say you aren't Australian, are you?" Maybe she was going to get out of her early than she thought and she could go home and hide under her covers and forget this night ever happened.

He frowned, "No. If I were Australian I'd sound like an ass," he shuddered a bit as he said it, "I'm South African."

"Oh." Gabriella scrunched up her eyebrows, trying to remember Sharpay's status with the African nations. "Let me get back to you. You wouldn't happen to have a yacht, do you?"

He shook his head.

"A dinghy?"

He just looked at her and walked away.

"What the hell?" Gabriella mumbled turning back to Troy, "I was going to ask her if she was interested. She'd got a tour-of-the-nations thing going on."

"Right," Troy said taking another sip of his drink. "Back to your totally plausible theory on men and our shallow evolutionary desires. If that's all we Neanderthals want is a beautiful woman-never mind the smarts, or sense of humor, or loyalty, or any of that business- what about you women? What do you want?"

"Simple," she shrugged, "power and money to help raise all your children."

Troy laughed again, "then I'm in big trouble because I've got neither."

"Well lucky for you women like me know that we have to settle," Gabriella said with a shrug.

"Do you have an actual shopping list?"

"No, I've avoided making one."

"And how's that working out for you?" Troy said with a raised brow.

Gabriella narrowed her glaze in his direction. "I don't like you very much."

"I'm hurt," Troy said picking up a Sharpay's stray pen and another fresh napkin, "What do you look for in a man?"

Gabriella reached over for his whiskey and took a large drink before setting it down again and shaking her head as she felt the burn course through her. "Alright,"

"What's important to you?"

"Someone who isn't interested in being the center of attention, a man who supports my dreams and is not critical of my many failures. He just picks me up with words of encouragement."

"Okay you want someone supportive," Troy said nodding his head in understanding.

"Celine Dion said it best, 'he lifts you up when you can't reach, he is your eyes when you can't see, he is your voice when you can't speak, he rights all the wrongs."

"How many martinis have you had?"

"Shut up and write it down."

Troy did as he was told. "Okay what else? Money?"

"I'd just like to say. Money isn't everything! And it's definitely not something you should look for first in a man. Women need to be more independent."

"Right," Troy said with a small smile, "So you want someone who will respect your independence?"

"And equality in every sense. Being able to communicate on the same level is a must."

Troy nodded as he continued to write. "You know, men and women should be further from the thought that we are not equal, everyone wants a faithful person, someone to pick them up when their down, someone to make them smile when it feels like life has crashed on top of them. I mean, I know I want someone who can understand that life is full of bullshit and hard times...but pushes through it with a smile on their face because they know when they're with the person they love and the bullshit doesn't matter."

"Put that on there."

Troy looked at her with uncertainty, "Which part?"

"All of it."

Troy rolled his eyes as he scribbled down the words faithful, and understanding of bullshit. "Alright, what else?"

"Well he has to have a good heart you know; I don't want him to be a baby stabber or anything?"

"Seriously?" he said with confusion.

Ignoring his critical tone she pressed on, "He needs to be honest, funny, sweet, romantic and give great advice!"

"Slow down," Troy said as he continued to write, "this is a napkin not a scroll."

Gabriella thought about it as he finished jotting down the last one, then he looked back up at her. "I want someone who is a good listener and a great cuddler. I also think it's important that he speaks truth when it counts the most."

Troy nodded as he wrote down the items, when he was done he looked up at her and she shrugged.

"What else should a girl ask for?"

"You don't want me to put huge cock on here for you?" he said with a smirk.

"Urg," she said giving him a playful push, "Don't be gross."

"Hey, come on you two, you're missing all the great beats!" Sharpay was suddenly at her side pulling her from her stool, "Come on!"

"Right," Gabriella said a little disappointed to have their time interrupted.

"Troy is it?" Sharpay asked once she got Gabriella out of her seat.

"Yes," he said a little unsure.

"Come dance with us," she said holding out her hand. Although he tried to say no he knew immediately she wasn't going to take no for an answer. Without further resistance Troy got up from his seat bringing the napkin with him and tucking it into his pocket.


	6. Chapter 6

_Merry Christmas!_

Monday night had come after a quite Sunday of avoiding her mother's calls and watching her neighbor through her kitchen window as he cleaned out his gutters. She didn't want to admit it but he was an attractive looking man. She let out a sigh as she closed off that part of her mind and looked down at her to do list for the evening. As always she was the first one in the studio, and she was pulling together the packets needed for that nights show. After about an hour of work the door opened and Taylor came in with Sharpay not too far behind.

Sharpay placed a coffee cup on Gabriella's desk. "So?" she dragged out as she placed her own coffee cup at her desk.

"So what?" Gabriella looked up at her with curious expression.

"So anything happen after we dropped you off on Saturday?" Taylor asked as she came to sit down at the switch boards.

Rolling her eyes Gabriella brush some hair away from her face. "No," she said reaching for her coffee cup. Looking up at the clock she took a sip as she realized it was already seven o'clock. The show didn't start till eight, but the hour would give them time to do the preparation needed for the show. "We both went our separate ways as it was meant to be."

"Why didn't you jump his bones, he looks like a little wrapped piece of heaven," Sharpay said sitting down in her chair. "Not to mention he has an ass that makes you want to dry hump."

"I barely know his name," Gabriella said with a shrug.

"Well what more can you ask for? We practically hand delivered you a descent guy," Taylor said as she began to wipe down the switch board in front of her with a Clorox wipe.

"Yeah, but?" Gabriella looked down at the stack of work in front of her. "He's my neighbor what if things don't go right?"

"What do mean go right? How can you fuck up sex?" Sharpay said creasing her brows at Gabriella.

"With my luck, it might be better if you don't ask," Gabriella muttered as she leaned back in her chair. "Let's just start the prep and get the show off to a good start," she said handing Sharpay some of the bullet points and main news articles for the first half of the show.

"Well I think you should sleep with him," Sharpay giggled as she took the notes in one hand and picked up her coffee cup with the other.

"From the looks of what I saw on Saturday night you both had the chemistry there," Taylor tossed out the wipe and finally took a seat as well, "I think you're just determined to be alone."

"I am not and trust me, he was just being nice." Gabriella opened a magazine to an article she wanted Taylor to read for tonight's show. "For now I think we should just drop the conversation and start thinking about the bullet points for tonight."

There were groans of disagreements as Taylor and Sharpay leaned back in their chairs. Sharpay finally took the lead as she brought her lap top out of her bag, "Alright, what do we have?"

Meanwhile, Troy was in the back yard pulling some of the weeds when he heard someone ring his doorbell. Getting off his hands and knees he wiped his hands on a rag and made his way around the house to the front. Coming to a stop he inspected the woman on his porch peeking in through one of the windows. From the back she looked almost like the girl from next door but she was smaller. Her hips more narrowed her hair shorter and loose around her shoulders. From this angle he couldn't see much of her face but he could tell that her features were just a bit sharper.

The mystery woman was holding a box under her arm as she turned around to leave the porch she caught his eye and she jerked back bringing a hand up to her chest. It was official whoever she was; she was related to his neighbor. The only question was why she was standing on his porch trying to see in through the windows.

"May I help you?" Troy asked tucking the rag into his back pocket.

"You scared me," she said coming down the steps, her eyes examined him as she walked over with her hand extended, "the yard looks so much better."

"Thank you," Troy said taking her offered hand, "Are you looking for someone?"

The woman looked a little thrown off his question. "Well not actually," she said after a moment, "I know my sister already went to work but I was hoping I could leave this with you." She motioned to the box to in her arms, on a closer look the box appeared to be a shoe box. "I'm getting married and these are her shoes for the wedding."

"Congratulations," he offered, "I make sure that she get them," Troy looked at the house next door he'd seen Gabriella leave two hours ago, she was wearing a pair of form fitted jeans with a pair of heals and nice blouse. He thought about saying hi, thought about trying to strike up a conversation but by the time he'd settled on _'how was your weekend?'_ she had already gotten in her car and was pulling out of her parking spot. Now that he knew she was going to work his interest was a little more piqued.

"You know she told me that someone brought the house next door but she made it sound like there were more of you," the woman said with a smile, "My mother has been worried about her living next to this abandoned house. My sister has this delusion that she can handle herself if something were to happen but I know my sister, when it come to fight or flight she gets on the first bus out of town."

Troy couldn't help the smile tugging on his lips, "I never would've figured," he said with a smirk.

Bringing the box closer to her chest she let out a sigh, "So what brings you to Albuquerque?"

"Teaching."

"Oh nice, you're a teacher?" she said with interest, "what do you teach?"

Troy shifted his weight as he eyed the shoe box curiously. He didn't know he was going to be investigated over a pair of shoes. "I teach English literature, and I also coach the basketball team."

"That is very unique," she said with a smile as she shifted the box in her arms. "Will you be teaching at the school East High?"

"Yes," Troy lifted his hand towards the box, "This might work better if you give me the box."

"Oh," she jerked a little as a faint blush came over her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I promise you I'm not some crazy little gossip," she said handing him the box. "My name is Samantha Montez. Well, at least for now anyway," she said with a nervous laugh.

"Troy Bolton," he offered as he tucked the box underneath his arm.

"Well it's been a pleasure meeting you, but I have to meet a baker about a wedding cake," she said with a small nod, "If I'm five minutes late my mother might begin filling a missing persons report."

"Wouldn't want that," Troy said watching her as she began to walk backwards towards the sidewalk.

"Now you tell Gabriella she owes me for those shoes," she said pointing at the box.

"Will do," he said with a smile. "Good luck with the wedding cake."

"Thanks." She said walking over to her green car.

Troy waved and watched as the car took off down the road. Turning around he walked up the path to the porch letting himself inside. Coming into the kitchen he placed the box on the table as he walked over to the fridge and took out a beer. Looking over at the clock he let out a sigh and turned on the radio unable to help himself he scanned the stations until he found the show from the other night.

"_Welcome to the show that brings light to the little freaks in all of us we're here on Ask a Bitch! On 79.6 FM, with your host Sharpay Evans. I hope your Monday wasn't too awful."_

Walking over to the stove he shook his head in disapproval. He shouldn't be listening to this show, but heaven help him he didn't want sit around shifting through knick-knacks and old furniture in silence. He already made the decision and first thing tomorrow he was going to get himself a dog. In the meantime why not indulge in a little smut entertainment. Reaching for a pot from the cabinet he filled it with water.

"_You know the routine people and if you don't let me refresh your mind. During the first hour we'll give you all the juicy gossip about Hollywood that you won't find on E and then we'll give you some boring news stuff followed by the segments you all know and love called Ask a Bitch were you call in with questions and we get you some answers." _

Gabriella leaned back in her chair and listened to Sharpay going on and on about John from John and Kate Plus Eight. Looking at the computer scene she watched for any technical problems and kept her eyes on the incoming text messages. Looking over at Taylor for moment she watched her as Taylor listened to people on the phone, rounding up calls for the Ask a Bitch hour.

Looking back at her main screen she watched the flood of text messages pouring for comment and questions. Gabriella let out a sigh as she shorted through the questions and admirable fans who texted in their comments.

_8859: I love the show I wish you guys were on all the time._

_2033: What's up bitches, I missed you all weekend. _

_8941: What's a good way to introduce your husband into the idea of a threesome?_

Sharpay looked over at Gabriella as she talked about Justin and Jessica's break up. The show really was all about Sharpay, without her they wouldn't have a show. She was sassy blond who had an opinion on everything and so far that opinion kept them in high ratings. Sharpay reached for a post it and scribbled something on it. Motioning for Gabriella to lean forward to see what it was. When Sharpay held it up for her to see, the note said _"get laid."_

Gabriella stuck up her middle finger as she leaned back in her chair and went back to work on screening the message boards. She had to find a at least two good texted in questions for the segment, looking through the questions she copied some of them onto a notepad to bring up for later. The news portion of the show was almost over and Gabriella looked over at Taylor who was taking a sip from her coffee.

_8592: My husband leaves the toilet seat up all the time, how can I get him to stop that?_

Gabriella loved working on the show; she enjoyed all the interaction with listeners. Her job paid well, she had nice hours and weekends off. Plus she worked with her best friends. Every day for five hours they were in the studio talking about everything they could possibly imagine. Even though the show was hosted by Sharpay both Gabriella and Taylor had their own mic, sometimes all three of them would talk about something. However on air the girls mostly went by Shar, Tay, and Gabi, It helped with fans and remaining hidden from the world.

Sharpay took Gabriella piece of paper holding it up "So you got a question for me 8941 and I think I might have the answer. If anyone else as an answer or has any suggestions for 8941 lets help her out. She wants to know, what's a good way to introduce your husband to the idea of a threesome. Tay tell me we have calls on this?"

Taylor let out a small laugh as she shrugged her shoulders, "people are calling in like crazy."

"I knew my sexy freaks wouldn't let me down hit me with the first caller, Rob you there?" Sharpay said reading the screen as Taylor put the call through.

"long time listener first time caller, and I have to say I love your show." The voice came out of the speakers and Sharpay gave Taylor a thumbs up.

"Why thank you rob, what advice do you have for 8941?"

"Well first of all, I would say if your husband is any kind of a man he'll be more then welcome to the idea of a threesome. What guy doesn't want to bang two chicks?"

Gabriella shook her head as she picked up her pen, "That's if she wants two chicks," she said pointing at Sharpay, "I mean what if she wanted a two guys? Would he still feel the same way?"

Sharpay shook her head as she narrowed her eyes at her, "Damn, Gabi got a point there."

The next caller was a female, "I would say if there is any shot at crossing swords than it's a no go. Men are so delicate about that."

Sharpay let out a laugh as she motioned for Taylor to turn up the volume on the caller, "So wait, we're saying if she wants a threesome with another girl it's okay but if she wants one with another guy it's not going to happen."

"Most likey," the caller said coming louder than before.

Gabriella sent both of them a thumbs up as she leaned back to watch the screen carefully.

"Lisa is the next caller," Taylor said quickly away from the mic.

Sharpay hit the button on her desk, "Let's see what Lisa has to say about that. Lisa you there?"

"Oh wow I can't believe I'm on the radio."

"Well believe it because you're on the radio and we're talking about threesomes."

Gabriella made a circular motion with her fingers, each caller had a minute on air to get to the topic at hand. They were on a schedule and it was Gabriella's job to make sure that stood on it.

"Well, first of all I think that if a man is open to a threesome with another woman he should be open to one with another man. It's only fair," Lisa said.

Sharpay held up a hand to stop Gabriella, "You know you'd think that! But in my experience men are very homophobic when it comes to their hunk being out with another man's junk. But tell me Lisa have you ever had a threesome?"

"I have actually."

Sharpay held out her hands in a thank you as she brought up praying hands. "Well, well, well, check you out sexy!" Sharpay sat up straighter picking up her coffee cup, "Tell me how did you get your guy to go along with it and you have to tell us what happened?"

"Well it was my boyfriend at the time. Now ex."

"Ouch," Taylor said with a wince.

"Really, you didn't break up because of this threesome did you?" Sharpay asked the caller.

Gabriella smiled as watched Sharpay interact with the listener, she had a skill, a talent that made you believe that while she was talking to you, you were the most important person on the planet. It was what made Sharpay so perfect for the job.

"No, he was stealing money from me but that's another story."

Gabriella let out a huff, "I hear you on that?"

"We were hanging out at a party and I asked him what he thought about a girl that was there, I mean I was attracted to her already so I-"

Sharpay howled as she interrupted the caller "Are you attracted to women often?"

There was a pause as the listen giggled a little, "short of, I use to be gay, but like I said I just asked him if he found her attractive and he said yeah so I just flat out asked him if he wanted to have a threesome with her."

Gabriella held out a hand, "See but he already knew you like women. So right off the bat he knew you weren't just blowing smoke. I mean what if 8941 says something like that to her husband and he just shrugs it off."

Sharpay leaned back in her chair "True, but I think that mentioning that you're physically attracted to another woman or another man might be a good place to start." Sharpay looked over at Gabriella pointedly, "You can always play it off as a joke if it doesn't go right but maybe, just letting him know that you might be interested in trying it out will get you a little closer to that sexy party."

Taylor shook her head, "I could never ask my boyfriend if he wanted a threesome, just the idea of him with someone else drives me crazy."

"Insecure much?" Sharpay teased as she hit the drop call button.

Taylor held up the middle finger as she placed a hand on her hip, "Finding a man these days is not like it use to be, I finally got a man who meets everything on my list. Like hell I'm going to let him sleep with someone else when I'm right there, that's crazy, I mean what if he likes her more. I'm Just gonna let this Bitch take what's mine?"

Gabriella leaned forward preparing to moderate. "That's a big issue. I'd say before anyone decides anything they should ask how the other person would feel about it because it only works if your both parties are comfortable. In order for the best experience you need to make sure that someone's feelings aren't going to get hurt."

"Right, right." Sharpay tapped her watch and hit the button "Okay last call on this then we're going to break. Susan what's up girl?"

"Well I think this 8941 person should just ask her husband what he thinks about the whole topic and stop pussyfooting the topic. I mean, if she doesn't want to bring it up point blank then maybe she should put on some porn with a threesome and see how he reacts to it."

Sharpay nodded as she leaned forward, "That is possibly the best idea so far. That's exactly what I think she should do pop in a little threesome porn see what happens and go from there."

"Simple enough," Taylor said with a shrug.

"Well don't go way folks this party is just getting naughty and we'll be right back on 79.6 FM, Ask a Bitch! With your host Sharpay Evans. You got questions I got answers call in at 773-779-6209.


	7. Chapter 7

Troy sat in his kitchen eating the last of his pasta as thought about the possibility of voice he'd heard on the radio being the voice of his neighbors. When the thought first him he denied it on the spot. She didn't seem like that kind of person, but as the show went on he was becoming more and more positive that the voice on the radio was the same voice that came out the petite brunette that had him intrigued with her list making abilities.

Troy heard a car door shut out side and got up to looked out the window to see Gabriella walking towards her house with a clump of things in her hands. Surely it wasn't a coincidence that when the show was over she was home from work. Not risking missing another chance to talk to her he reached for the box on the table and walked towards the door.

Gabriella let out a sigh as she shifted the items in her arms to relieve her hand with the keys in them. It was almost one in the morning and she was beyond beat. The show was good even down to the last caller who called in about panty sniffing. Trying not to drop her folders she bent her knee up to help hold on to the box she was caring as well with fan mail inside. It was a shitty job having to open each letter but sometimes it helped her think of new ideas for the show.

The porch was dark and she struggled as she made her fifth attempt to put the key in the lock, "Oh my god," she murmured as she stop and shifted the folders again. She needed a porch light. She'd been meaning to call someone about having one put in for the last three weeks but the task kept slipping her mind.

"Need some help?"

"Oh god," she yelped almost dropping her things and turning around to face a male figure in the dark. Her heart was pounding in her chest as he reached for the keys in her hand.

"You might want to invest in a light here," He said pointing around at the darkness. She let out a sigh as she recognized the voice as her neighbors.

"Right," she said quietly as she looked at him, "Why are you still up?" she asked looking back at his house. It was dark over there as well except for the kitchen light that was on.

"Waiting for you really," he said opening her front door.

"Is that so?" maybe she should have been scared.

"Your sister came by earlier she gave me this box to give to you," he pointed at the box tucked under his arm as he held the door open for her. "She said you owe her for the shoes."

Gabriella rolled her eyes as she walked into her living room and set her things down on the coffee table. Troy followed her into an open plan kitchen/living room. The kitchen was white and modern and pristine, the furniture in the living area a mixture of creams and whites and raw wood. Only the stacks of magazines on the coffee table next to the box and paperwork she'd just placed there.

"So you met my sister?" she said turning around and watching as Troy held up the keys from the door and let it close behind him.

"She sort of looks like you too," he said with a smile, "It wasn't hard to figure out the family resemblance especially when I caught looking in through my windows like she was casing the joint."

"Really," Gabriella said crossing her arms she came to stand in front of him. "Because I don't see it?" she said tilting her head to the side. Bringing a hand up she rubbed the sore spot of her next, she had to make a note to remember to get this looked at.

"Sisters hardly ever do," he said holding out the box to her.

"Thank you," she said taking the box from him and opening the lid to reveal a pair of light blue heels with flowers on the toe area. "uhhh," the groan escaped her lips as she leaned back a little un able to hide her annoyance. "I told her no flowers."

"They look nice," he said shrugging his shoulders.

"Do you have any idea what it feels like to be a maid of honor in a blue dress with blue shoes and flowers on them?"

"I'm guessing not like Cinderella?" he said with a smirk.

Gabriella paused and looked at him with a slight interest, why was she talking to him about shoes? Here he was a perfectly good looking man standing in her house and she talking to him about shoes. "So do you make it a habit to go around scaring women at night?" she said placing the shoes down on the couch as she made her way to the kitchen. "Scotch or brandy?"

He didn't drink either, but if ever an occasion called for the lubricating effects of alcohol this was it. It had been a long time since he was alone with a woman. He could sense an urge to run inside him. He watched her open the cupboards and pulled out two tumblers.

"Scotch thanks," He said with a slight guilt. "I'm sorry about before, I didn't want to scare you."

"Right," Gabriella poured a generous amount into each glass then handed one to him.

Troy nodded a thank you as he took the glass and continued to stand there silently as he debated staying. He did want to stay; he liked talking to her, and he was finding that the more time he spent with her he felt like close to his old self again.

"Thanks for my shoes, and for getting the door. I appreciate it," she said lifting her glass to him in an informal toast. "Above and beyond the call of duty, especially, since we hardly know each other."

_And didn't exactly get off on the right foot. _She didn't say it and neither did he, but he knew without a doubt that they were both thinking it.

"No problem." He took a swallow and scotch burned its way down his throat to his belly. Troy looked to his side and saw the organized mail slots and all the categories. "You're very organized."

"Occupational hazard," she said leaning on the table. She nodded, then looked into her drink. He wondered if she was as uncomfortable as he was, and if she was finding this conversation as stilted and yawn inducing as he was.

"Right," Troy came up to the other side of the table and smiled. "So your sister is getting married?"

"Yup," She said with a shrug. "I tried to talk her out of it but she has decided to take the big plunge in three weeks," she said with a smile.

"Bitter?" he asked raising a brow.

"No, I'm a big girl," she said raising a brow in his direction.

"So who's the date?" he asked pulling out a chair and sitting in it deciding he feel more at ease if he relaxed a little.

"Date?" she asked pulling out her chair and sitting down as well.

"The shopping list? Have you found the guy you're bringing," he said with smirk as he leaned forward.

"I haven't decided yet," she said with sigh. "I was thinking maybe I would just flip out the little black book," she said only half joking.

"Ouch," he winced. "That's bad form."

"Excuse me?"

"Bringing an Ex to a wedding is calling for trouble," he said with frown.

Gabriella thought for a moment and rubbed the back of her neck. "I Guess your right about that. Men tend to think booty call when they heard from an ex-girlfriend." With her luck most of them would be married anyway, but she kept that to herself. She didn't really want him to know that her last relationship with a man was over two years ago.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Date I guess," she shrugged as she lifted her glass for a sip, "I can't go alone to my younger sister's wedding that would just be asking for the sympathy to come pouring in."

Troy laughed as he watched her stare off for a moment. "I don't think it'll be a problem," He said with a smile, "You're cute enough."

"Cute enough?" she said darting her eyes his way, "Gee thanks."

"Modest are we?" he teased.

Gabriella rolled her eyes, "you just watch, I'm going to have a date for this wedding and he is going to be mouth wateringly hot," She said placing her glass on the table in front of her.

"Right," he said lifting his own glass, "With or without the huge cock?"

Mouth gapping open she tossed her head back in a laugh that filled the room. He couldn't help himself from laughing a little as well. "You're funny," she said once she settled down and wiped a tear from her eye, "So what do you do Troy?" she said crossing her arms as she toed off her shoes underneath the table. "You have a job right?" she said resting back on the chair.

"Yes I do. I teach," he said with a smile, "High school English literature."

"Don't tell me you're teaching at East High?"

"I start tomorrow in fact," he said with a smile.

"Oh man," she said leaning forward and placing her palms down on the table, "I remember when I went there, I was on the scholastic decathlon with Taylor. We had so much fun, Sharpay and I did one of the school musicals. We had a tap dancing routine and everything!"

Troy enjoyed her enthusiasm on the topic her eyes glazed over a bit as she seemed to be back in time with those memories. "So tell me," he decided to bring the topic of her career to the table, since she had brought up his. "How does one get themselves into the radio business?" he asked lifting his glass.

Gabriella's cheeks began to blush faintly as she looked down into her cup. "So you listen?"

"Just twice," he admitted.

"I bet you think a lot less of me huh?" she said looking up at him slowly. Most men did not like it when they heard her on the radio. It was all hot and sexy but when she started using her life experience as material, It suddenly became a problem. Her dates would quickly realized it wasn't so fun to hear about their relationship or their girlfriends past relationships on the air. Not only that but it was as if men put her on this sexy platter where everything had to revolve around it. Truth was she grown to resent sex over the years, it was a lot work put together just for the off chance that she might orgasm.

"No I think it's great," he said honestly, "I mean not only is it entertaining but it seems to be an outlet that's helpful to many people."

"I bet it is," she sighed and looked at the bottom of her glass.

"You don't like what you do?" Troy said looking at her curiously.

"I love what I do it's the men I date who hate what I do," she said looking at him with a small smile. "Go figure."

"Well for what it's worth your show is great and I don't see why it's a problem for the men you date."

"Keep listening honey, just keep listening," she said as she chuckled to herself.

"I will," he said looking over at the clock, "and I am going to get going because I have a class to teach in the morning."

Gabriella watched as Troy got up from his chair, she almost disappointed to see him go. "Yeah, we wouldn't want you falling asleep in class," she said with smirk, "trust me I hear it's frowned upon."

Troy made his way to the door letting himself out as she watched him go from her place at the kitchen table. With a final wave he was gone and she was alone again in the fortress of solitude she had unknowingly become queen of.


	8. Chapter 8

-Author's Note: Happy New Year! For those of you asking … Yes this is a rewrite of Ask a Bitch. The story was taken down for being inappropriate so I've changed the title and I've given the plot a twist. In writing news I have just finished rewriting How I Met My Father, if any of you are interested in that story I encourage you to read and review as always because I love hearing what you think.

-End of note.

Forest Gump was known for saying that life was like a box of chocolates. You never knew what you were going to get. His grandmother, bless her heart had a different saying. His grandmother always said "you never know what you're made of until you're broken," and he'd been broken alright. He'd just about lost his faith not only in god but in mankind. Coming to Albuquerque was an escape from the nightmare surrounding his previous life. Anywhere was better than his old apartment. It didn't even feel like his anymore.

Troy kept his distance from the internet these days, not because of the obvious reason but because of his curiosity. It was a habit he couldn't shake, no matter how much he'd tell himself not to do it, he'd do it anyway. He'd open up the web browser and type his name into the search engine and watch as pages of articles would flood the screen and he'd be right there sucked back into all the emotions that went along with it. Troy had a mug shot, the picture was taken when he was arrested for taking indecent liberties with a minor. The image of it still rattled him deeply.

Not only had one of his seventeen year old students accused him of having inappropriate relationship with her, but the firestorm that erupted afterwards broke his heart and his spirit. Troy considered himself a good Christian man, he went to church every Sunday. Until that day. It had been almost like a shunning, the church had banned him from coming in. Those who couldn't believe he'd done it offered their condolences. Those who thought he was a child molesting monster crossed the street when they saw him.

He'd felt like one of the main characters in a million different bible stories. He was facing hardship after hardship. He was Daniel in the lion's den. He was David, staring down at his own Goliath. The difference was that the people in the bible had conquered their trials while he had been stoned to death. He'd tried to walk on water and sunk, tried to look back and turned into a pillar of salt.

People had either believed him or they didn't. Most of what he said didn't have any affect. People minds were already made up. Even though there been no evidence to convict him, he been deemed guilty by the community. His face had been all over the papers, one national news show had even picked up on it. Websites that profiled male pedophiles had listed him. He knew he wasn't guilty but he felt guilty. Even now he still felt like he'd done something wrong.

Tiffany Bugles was seventeen years old. She was able to enroll at the private school Troy taught at on a need-based scholarship. She had a single mom who didn't make much money. Her mom, her younger brother and Tiffany had moved from the Midwest after a divorce.

Tiffany had always been a little standoffish from her classmates. She was a good looking girl with short brown hair that came up to her shoulders and an athletic build. To the best of his knowledge she had a steady boyfriend for four months, a nice guy who was in the school's marching band. Tiffany had always seemed like she needed a father figure in her life, and she struggled with some of the rules that came with enrollment to a private school.

Troy had always set his own boundaries about not spending any time alone with students of the opposite sex. But, unlike other parents, Tiffany's mom never picked her up on time. He'd talked to her about it, and she'd broken down in tears, telling him about how hard it was to be a single mom. His heart had caved with compassion because she'd seem truly broken.

After that conversation, she continued to be late. One Thursday in May he'd been anxious to get home. The day was sunny and he'd had a wife who was waiting for him. The two of them were going to catch a movie. The end of the school year had been so busy and stressful; he'd just needed the downtime.

All the other girls on the basketball team had gone home after practice, and he'd waited an hour for Tiffany's mom to arrive. He'd tried to stay occupied with grading papers and organizing his desk. Tiffany had stayed in his classroom working on her homework. She'd seemed nervous, and at the time he thought it was because of she sense his agitation.

Finally he'd offered to drive her home. They chitchatted about practice and school work on the drive home. She'd mentioned how bad things had been for her family after her dad left them. Money was tight, her mom was always emotional, her brother always in trouble. He'd felt for her, he'd really had. He could remember making a mental note about talking to the principal to see if they could do anything to help out her family.

He'd pulled up to the house, a run-down building that needed some major TLC. There were no cars in the driveway, which didn't seem unusual after what they had talked about. Tiffany grabbed her backpack and waved goodbye as she went inside her house. End of story.

At least, it should have been the end of the story.

The police arrested him two days later. Tiffany had told her mom that he'd gone inside with her. She accused him of making advances on her. Not once but several times, she'd even alleged that he'd asked her to stay late so they could spend more time together. But then she changed the details of her story a couple of times, which reduced her credibility.

His parents bailed him out of jail, his wife left him, and when he went to one of the best attorneys he could find in the area about representing him, they'd refused. That's when he knew he was in trouble.

Thankfully, Between the lack of concrete evidence like DNA, text messages, or pictures, the district attorney's office couldn't meet their burden of proof. It was simply Tiffany's word against his, which wouldn't hold up in the court of law. But it was more than enough in the court of the public opinion. Even with the charges dropped there was no formal clearing of his name. For several months the investigation remained open, any day could turn up a new lead and he'd be hauled back for more questions, more accusations, and more humiliation.

His career working with children was marked DNR. He knew employers would find excuses as to why they couldn't hire him and he couldn't blame them. He wouldn't even hire him and he knew he was innocent. The media had a field day with his story when the charges became public. Reporters began camping out on his doorstep, they followed him everywhere, shouting questions and accusations at him. He'd had to resort to hiding in his parent's basement.

All it took was one lie, and his life had been destroyed. Why? Why had Tiffany made up the story? He hadn't talked to her since that day he'd dropped her off at home. Why someone would want to ruin another person's life was beyond him.

His saving grace was that before Tiffany Bugles lived in Miami, she lived in Austin, Texas. Her mother was married to someone different, so she went by Tiffany Morris back then. Troy had gotten a call from someone out there who used to work for the school she attended. Tiffany had made the same accusations against a teacher there.

A lot more digging into the past had brought to light an ugly pattern. It had taken a lot of calls, a road trip to Minnesota and three lawyers to come together but eventually Troy's name had been cleared. Since Tiffany was 12 years old she had sordid past behind her. Her name had been legally changed three times. Her first encounter of this kind was the father of her babysitter, the charges we're filed and then mysteriously dropped. When the lawyers pulled bank records it had appeared that Tiffany and her mother had been paid 5 thousand dollars for their silence.

At the age of 14 she accused a teacher of making out with her and dating her causally. This law suit resulted in fines and civil suits brought up against the man along with the revocation of his teaching license. At the age of 16 Tiffany and her mother made the same accusations sentencing a teacher to a year in jail and then filing civil suits against him. Tiffany and her mother had been scamming the system for years.

His charges had been dropped and his named had been cleared. He'd been rewarded with the restoration his teaching license and year salary from his year of suspension. His faith in mankind was a different story.

Nonetheless he stood there in the classroom for the first time since that day in court where the charges were dropped. Today was a gift to be thankful for. East High had agreed to take him on as a temporary English literature teacher. He'd be coaching the basketball team with an assistant coach and he was going to have a teacher's aid in the classroom at all times. It was a precaution, one he understood and was grateful for. No matter how much experience you have as a teacher, the first day is always the most exciting.

Troy listened to the principal as they stood in his classroom introducing him to his teaching assistant the room and set his briefcase to the side. So far he'd been given a tour of the school and he been introduced to a few of the teachers. It was still early and classes hadn't started. Most of the students he saw in the hall were catching up on their gossip and comparing outfits. The bustle of students made Troy feel welcomed and excited about becoming part of the community.

"Well Mr. Bolton I think you're going to be just fine here at East High," the man held out his hand and smiled, "This is a list of your classes and this is the times for the basketball practices."

Troy nodded as he looked down at the paperwork he'd been given. "I'm really grateful for the chance to be here."

"Don't even mention it," the principal said with a hushing motion. "I mean I know East High is a lot different than what your use to but, the school system being what it is we believe that every educator in far too important to let slip through the cracks."

Troy looked up and placed the paperwork on the desk behind him, "Right," he said not entirely sure how to take the statement. Deciding to let it go he looked around the classroom with wary eyes, "Do you know who my teaching aid will be?"

"Yes, her name is Rachel, she's been very eager to meet you."

"She's a female?" Troy said a little caught off guard.

The principal frown, "That's not going to be a problem is it?"

Troy took a deep breath his palms suddenly sweaty and his shoulders stiff. "No, not at all."

"Great, good luck then."

Just then the bell rang and Troy watched as the principal left the room leaving him alone in the classroom by himself. It had been the first time in a while he been alone inside a classroom. Carefully he placed his briefcase at the side of his desk and walked over to the chalk board to write his name on the on it.

"Mr. Bolton?" a woman voice filled the room and the chalk in his hands slipped from his fingers falling onto the floor and breaking into two pieces.

"Crap," he said taking a deep breath, "I'm sorry," turning around he held out his hand coming face to face with a petite brunette who looked a lot like a younger Natalie Portman, "Rachel?"

"Yes, Rachel Galeton," she said taking his hand in hers, "I'm sorry I'm running late this morning, I wanted to be here sooner but things came up and-"

"It's alright," Troy said cutting off as he pulled his hand away. "I mean it's the first day, things are bound to happen." Looking past her he watched as the students began to fill the classroom.

"I just wanted to say it's an honor to work with someone like you, and I wanted you to know that I was always on your side, you would never do anything like that. I mean, one time I sat in on one of your lectures back when I was getting certified but I never imagine that we would ever work together," she said trying to be quiet as well as heard over the bustle of students coming in.

"Thank you?" Troy said finding that the more people he came in contract with the more he had no idea how to go about taking the things that they said. Thankfully that was all she had to say and she turned away from him to set her things down at a back table.

Troy let out a breath as he bent down to pick up the chalk and placed it on his desk. Looking out at the room as it filled with students he felt an old comforting feeling inside him. This was right, despite his fears and hesitations he felt oddly at home and in his element, like somehow he could manage these feelings inside him. Some of the students were carrying on conversations with others, some of them sat at their desk quietly looking up at him. He felt a big wave of fear as he looked out into the eyes of twenty students.

Another bell rings. A few stragglers rush through the door just as he's about to close it. For a second he hesitated, not entirely sure he wanted the door closed at all. To say the least he totally off his first-day-of-school game. deciding against closing the door he left it open. Coming to stand at the head of the classroom he looked out into the sea of eyes staring back at him as they tried to figure him out.

"Who in here has thing for Taylor Swift?" he said loudly letting his voice command attention. Those still holding a conversation settled and some of them giggled. After a moment most of the boys raised their hand along with a few girls earning more giggles.

"If she were homework, I'd do her every night," A boy from the back of the class said.

"Gross," responded a girl from the front.

Deciding not to engage in that conversation he walked over to his bag and opened it up. "Love Story," he said looking up at everyone, "has anyone seen the video?"

More people raised their hands and he smiled. "This is good," he said pulling out his iPod from his bag and a mini speaker. After a few clicks through the iPod Love Story began to play loudly through the tiny speaker.

"Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and an intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution." Troy tapped the board knowing now that he had everyone attention. "My name is Troy Bolton, you will call me Mr. Bolton," he said placing his hands in his pockets. Most of the students looked at him oddly as he continued to go on over the music. "How many of you love this song?"

Hands flew up again and he nodded as he picked up a piece of chalk and looked out at the students.

"Did you know that the romanticism was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment?" Troy lifted an eraser and erased his name from the board. "Romanticism is a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature," he said writing the word out on the chalk board. "Questions, comments, concerns? Let talk about this," he said turning around as he held a hand towards the music.

A girl in the front row raised her hand and Troy nodded eagerly and pointed at her. "Please it's going to take time but please say your name and then ask your question."

The girl was hesitant at first, obviously not sure about being called on first. "My name is Linda," she said finally, "I guess my question is what does this have to do with English literature or Taylor Swift?" the girl said as she shrugged her shoulders.

"Everything," Troy said extending both his arms out. "Without the past there is no present," Troy took a step back to lean on his desk, "Without Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet this song would not exist. Without this song your memories, personalities, likes and dislikes would be altered." Waving a hand in a circular motion he looked around the room. "Think about the first time you heard this song," he said holding a hand to his lips, "Does anyone remember what they were doing?"

A girl in the back raised her hand.

"You in the back."

"My name is Tania, and I was with my mom in the car," she said with a smile.

"What did you think about? Did you turn it up?" he asked with a smile.

"I thought about my boyfriend," she said a little coy as a faint pink came over her cheeks. "I turned it up because it made me think about our first dance."

"Like Romeo and Juliet," he said leaning forward, "without a past there is no present." Troy smirked as he looked out as his captive audience. "Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classical ideal models to elevate medievalism and elements of art. It is a narrative perceived to be authentically medieval, in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism, and romanticism has attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar, and distant modes that are more authentic than chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape."

Some of the students nodded in agreement and some looked like it wasn't clicking to them at all. "Think about all the most notable Romantic writers: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Mary Shelly, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats," he said pulling a book out of his bag. "By the end of this class, not only will you know these people but you will know how their past creates your present."

Later that day Troy walked into the gym, glad to have half of the day done with. Looking around he noted the office and made his way over, when he past the threshold he noticed Chad already at his desk writing something down.

"Hello," Troy said placing his briefcase off to side.

"Hey man," Chad said as stood up to offer Troy a high five, "That desk is yours I took the liberty of clean it out for you."

"Thank you," Troy said looking back at the second desk behind him. "I could have done it myself."

"So I heard Eric Blaine praising his new literature teacher, he said that you were very boss," Chad smirked.

"Boss?"

"It's the new that's so rad," Chad said looking back down at his papers, "Seriously you're going to need to catch up on your slang around here because these kids have special coding like text lingo."

"Is that so," Troy said deciding to take a seat at his desk.

"Very, so what did you think about Gabs?" Chad said leaning back in his chair.

Lost about who he was referring to Troy made a face as he took a folder out of the outside pocket to his briefcase, "Who?"

Chad chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders, "you know, the Gabster?" he said reaching for the basket ball set up on top of the cabinet. "Your next door neighbor?"

"Oh," Troy nodded, "She's different."

"She works with my girl," Chad said with a light shrug, "I've known her since high school."

"Really," Troy said with a smirk, "So you're okay with your girlfriend working on a show like that?"

"Yup and I'm a long time listener," He said spinning the ball on his finger, "I think it funny, you wouldn't believe the people who call in."

"I can imagine," Troy said leaning back in his chair, "So why are you asking about her?" he asked looking at Chad with confusion.

"Just getting your opinion for the masses, see I know enough to know that when I get home tonight it's going to be the first thing I'm asked."

"Asked?" Troy raised a brow, "Why?"

"Because she's single, you're single… you live a cup a sugar away from each other," Chad stopped the ball from spinning and set down on his desk. "You're like a shiny new object."

"Well she's not my type, and I think she's a little…"

"High strung?" Chad said supplied.

"No," Troy said with a sigh, "Maybe just distant."

"Right, so when are you going to have a house warming party dude?"

"The place still needs a lot of work," Troy said getting up from his chair. He could already hear a commotion coming from the locker room as students entered the gym, "Might be a while before I have guest."

"So do something in the yard, I mean you just want to get to know people around here right?"

"Actually, I'm not so sure that I do," Troy said unbuttoning his shirt, "I'm still not even sure about teaching let alone if I want to know anyone yet."

"Look," Chad said coming to stand up as well, "I know what you're going through, it's just a man funk you'll figure it out, in the mean time why not just humor us and hang out with us anyway."

Troy was quiet for moment as he thought about it. "I guess we could do something in the back yard."

"Awesome I'll invite the gang." Chad said as he followed Troy out of the office and into the gym.

After two cups of coffee and a cinnamon roll Gabriella was at her desk looking up celebrity gossip and information for tonight's show. She was struggling to keep her eyes open, she'd been up early this morning because she had a meeting with the station manager, looking at the clock it getting closer to four in the evening. Pushing herself away from her laptop she leaned back in on her chair she stretched and arched her back. If she could wrap up this last lead in the next ten minutes she could sneak in a nap before she had to leave at 6:30.

Gabriella rubbed her eyes in an effort to awaken them and when her hands dropped the effort had been wasted. Her phone rang and without thinking about it she picked it up and cringed when she heard her mother's voice on the other end.

"Finally," her mother said as if praising the lord, "I have been trying to get a hold of you all week. Have you ever heard of a site called eHarmony?"

"Of course I have," Gabriella said lifting her coffee cup up to her lips, "Who hasn't their advertising is everywhere."

"Good," Her mother said excitedly, "I'm creating a profile for you and I need to know what your current bust line is?"

Gabriella sprung up in her seat spitting out coffee as a horrified expression melted into her features. "You're doing what?"

"This is how all the young people are meeting these days, plus this way I can filter out all the bad seeds and make sure you're only meeting nice guys."

"Have you lost your mind?" Gabriella put her coffee cup down and stood up reaching for a discarded sock to begin wiping up the mess dripping down the front of her shirt. "For starters, isn't that site like $60 bucks a month?"

"Actually, it costs nothing to join the site, you just have to create a profile, and receive matches," she said with a pride in her voice, "However, if you want to see pictures and communicate with those matches or use any of the other bells and whistles on the site, it's going to cost $59.95 for a month's membership."

"Mom, stop." Gabriella tossed the sock at her keyboard and got up from her seat. "I do not need an eHarmony membership, I don't need a profile, and I'm sure as shit not telling you what my bust line is."

"Language Gabriella, its bad enough you're on that show speaking so foully the least you can do is clean it up while you're off air."

She could hear the frown in her mother's voice.

"Mom, I don't want an eHarmony account."

"Oh, what about Christainmingle? Your father liked that one, he wants you to date a good Christian boy," she said endearingly.

"I can't be on any dating site mom," Gabriella said coming into the kitchen and reaching into her cabinet for the brandy.

"Really, why not? Have you met someone?"

Gabriella poured the glass and looked down at it as she listened to the hope in her mother's voice. "Maybe," she said with a sigh, "It's too soon to tell."

"Well why didn't you say something!" she said with a squeal, "Luis! Luis she has a boyfriend!"

"I didn't say that," Gabriella said placing the brandy to the side. It was hopeless. She could already hear her father asking about him, asking if this boyfriend of hers approved of what she did for a living. Rolling her eyes she lifted the glass and slung it back.

"Oh we're so excited, tell me all about him, tell me everything, I'm so excited for you. Is he coming to the wedding of course he is, does he know about the theme?"

"Yeah, sure why not," she said about to reach her hand up and massage the knots out of her neck she paused when she heard the door bell. "You've got to be kidding me," she mumbled as she began walking towards the door. "Mom I have to go."

"Already but we just started, is he vegetarian? Should I change his plate? Is he tall? Should I get your shoes resized? Oh will you be booking a room at the hotel now that you have someone?"

The doorbell rang and Gabriella let out a long sigh, "Mom, someone's at the door I gotta go."

"Alright remember to put the chain up and ask who it is first, call me after they leave so I know you're safe."

"Yes mother." Gabriella hung up the phone with a great deal of effort on the end call button than necessary. Reaching for the doorknob she gritted her teeth, "Who is it?"

"Taylor."

Gabriella forced a smiled and opened the door, coming face to face not with Taylor but a picture of a man with dark brown eyes looking back at her.

"Who is that?" Gabriella said her face falling into a frown.

"Your date for tomorrow afternoon," Taylor said with a wide smile.

"Are you trying to make me slam this door in your face?"

"His name is Zeke and he's a great guy," Taylor said walking past her into the house. "Let face it you need a date for the wedding and I know single people. We can fix this problem."

Gabriella eyes followed Taylor as she made her way to the kitchen. With a sigh she pushed the front door shut and dragged her feet down the hall to follow. When she walked into the kitchen she watched in annoyance as Taylor put the picture of Zeke on the fridge.

"I can get my own dates you know," Gabriella said as she walked over to the fridge.

Taylor let out a huff as she made herself at home making herself a cup of coffee. "I think you don't have a choice at the moment."

Gabriella rubbed her neck as she looked at the picture on the fridge, "Well," she said deciding not to argue, "At least he's cute."

"That's the spirit," Taylor said with a smile. Turning around she looked out the window in the kitchen in time to see Troy getting out of his car with dog following close behind on his heels. "Whoa" she said pulling the blind up.

"What is it?" Gabriella said looking away from the photograph.

"Mmmm, is he religious? Cause he's the answer to all my prayers?" Taylor said as she leaned on the sink to get a better look at him.

Gabriella came to the window to see as well and there he was, a very delicious looking Troy pulling at his tie a little and whistling at a small brown and white dog who was walking behind him. "He got a dog?" Gabriella asked as she watched it trot alongside him. It was a small dog, hyper, playful by the looks of its rebellious nature to tug at the leash in Troy's hand.

"Screw the dog, look at the owner," Taylor nudged.

Gabriella eyes returned to the owner in question. He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at his watch. The cuffs of his white shirt were rolled up at the sleeves and his muscles rippled on his forearms.

"What does that man do?"

"He teaches at East High, with your boyfriend. Remember him?" Gabriella teased turning away from the window.

"Where were the teachers like that when we went to high school?" Taylor mumbled memorized.

Gabriella looked back at the fridge as she studied the man pinned there with a welcome to Las Vegas Magnet. His skin was a milk chocolate brown; his smile could be compared to that of a mega watt bulb. This man was good looking, in his own ways. "Kind of puts your date to shame huh?"

Taylor mouth fell open as she looked back at Gabriella with a playful pained expression. "Well then why not just go over there and ask Troy what he's doing tomorrow afternoon," Taylor said crossing her arms.

Gabriella reached into a cookie jar and pulled out a cookie. She didn't bake cookies, she hardly ever cooked. She'd just throw a name brand bag of chocolate chip cookies in the jar and let people make their own decisions. "That's crazy," Gabriella said leaning on the counter. "What am I suppose to do?" she said waving her cookie, "Hey Troy want a cookie with some sex on the side."

"It's a start," Taylor said opening a cabinet for a plate and walking over to the cookie jar. "Here just throw a few of these on a plate and make it work."

"Tay, come on that was a joke," Gabriella said with a half laugh.

Taylor put some cookies on the plate and shoved it into Gabriella's hands. "Joke or no joke it's worth a shot," she said pushing Gabriella to the door, "Think about it, he just came home from a long day at work what mad is going to turn down cookies and a sexy woman."

"I'm not even sexy yet, I'm in jeans and promotional coffee stained t-shirt for beer pong."

Taylor showed no hesitation in her step as she continued to shove Gabriella towards the door. "Girl, you got boobs and a vagina, improvise!" she said shoving her out the door and onto the porch.

With the door to her own home slamming shut behind her Gabriella looked around for any signs of life that might be walking by. This was going to be humiliating, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear she took a deep breath began making her way next door. What the heck was she going to say? What the heck was he going to think? In a way wasn't this considered stalking? Coming up his steps she avoided the step with a crack in it.

When she came to the door she took a deep breath, and lifted her hands hesitating before pulling her hand away like she'd been about to touch a hot pot. "Come on Gabriella man up, pull your skirt down and adjust the push up," she coached her silently. Knocking on the door she waited patiently and then looked over at Taylor who was holding both thumbs up from her window.

Troy peeked out at Gabriella image out on his porch, letting out a sigh he bowed his head and looked down at his new Jack Russell Terrier, who looked up at him full of curiosity about the visitor. Reaching for his tie he opened the door and came face to face with his next door neighbor. "Gabriella," he greeted, "what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked looking down at the plate full of cookies.

Her mouth opened as she looked at him, he wasn't sure what was going on? What she wanted? Why she'd walked over with a plate of cookies? Troy examined the cookies on the plate which lead his eyes to her bust line that read _Beer Pong with Miller Light!_ Raising a brow he looked down at his Jack Russell who had stepped out onto the porch to sniff her feet.

"Oh my god," she said when the dogs wet nose pressed against her ankle, "You got a dog,"

"I did," Troy said with a small nod, "Her name is Emily."

"You named your dog Emily," Gabriella looked up at him with odd expression, "Don't you think that's a little weird, giving it a people name?"

Troy bent down to pick up Emily before she ventured off the porch, "I named her after Emily Bronte, the writer."

"Yeah," Gabriella said with shrug, "I mean I just ... I mean there are so many dog names out there like muffins or skittles or fido or something that isn't so…"

"So people like?" Troy said with a small smirk as he looked down at the puppy, "Is there a reason you're here?"

"Oh," Gabriella jerked as she held the cookie tray up, "I was wondering if you wanted a cookie and … maybe …"

They were both quiet as he watched her cheeks flush and her hand grip the plate tighter. He looked at her as she began to nod her head a bit and he involuntarily did the same "Maybe?"

"Maybe you could help me put up a light …on my …porch?" she said with a wince, "It's just you seem like the handy type and I'm not really …"

Troy chuckled and picked up one of the cookies from the tray, "Are you trying to be my friend?" he said looking at her with amusement.

"Maybe," she said shrugging her shoulders, "That or I really need a handy man?"

Troy was quiet for moment as he watched her squirm a little under his watch. He immediately looked elsewhere feeling obligated to make her less uncomfortable. "Tell you what," he said taking a cookie off the plate. "I would have been your friend even without the fake home baked cookies." Hell to be honest with himself, he would been more than her friend if she just stood there and continued to look doe eyed. Something about her was completely exotic without being exotic and for some odd reason he felt horrible for thinking that way. He didn't want to objectivity her, and he wanted to have nothing but the upmost respect for her.

"So is that a yes?" Gabriella said a little unsure keeping an eye on the dog under his arm.

Troy nodded and took a bite of the cookie. "I will be happy to solve your light problem," he said, leaving out the addition that he'd be happy to solve any problem as long as it was hers.

"Thanks," she said, "and thank you for the shoes again," she added.

"Not problem."

Gabriella stood there drawing a blank as she looked at the man standing in the door way with his dog under one arm and a cookie in the other hand. He was fine piece of work. She could see his muscle from underneath his shirt she could smell the musk sent of aspen on him. In that moment about a 15 different fantasies came over her and it took her everything she had not to ask for help with a math problem because she wanted to be his student really bad.

The air between them was tense and she looked back at her house then back at him. "Well, you know I have to get ready for work and well um…here," she said handing him the cookies, "enjoy."

"I will. Thank you," he said with a tight small smile. He watched her as she waved and made her way off his porch and to her own yard.

Against her better judgment Gabriella turned around she seen him leaning against door frame watching her. She almost about died but she waved again and then quickly raced up the steps and inside of the sanctuary that was her home.


	9. Chapter 9

That night Gabriella sat at her desk drinking her fourth coffee. With a sigh she leaned back in her chair watching as Sharpay and Taylor worked the show. Her eyes watching the comments and text messages coming in from listeners.

"Welcome back to Ask a Bitch! On 79.6 FM, with your host Sharpay Evans, You got questions I got answers call in at 773-779-6209 and I'll hook you up because I got your crazy baby"

Her thoughts were far away from the show, she looked down at her phone just in time to see it light up. picking it up she unlocked the screen to see the message from her sister. _Mom's talking about fixing you up! _Gabriella rolled her eyes as she looked back at the computer screens in front of her.

It wasn't like she was walking around with this gigantic off limits sign tattooed on her forehead. It was official her mother was driving her crazy. Here she was at peak of life, and although she felt ready to get married, what was the hurry? Life was good, why rush to the alter and settle for the wrong guy. She was happy for Sam, thrilled that her little sister could find love. But now that Sam was getting married the push Gabriella felt from everyone seemed to be growing.

Every time she saw her mother, she asks whether she dating anyone or if she have any "prospects" on the horizon. Gabriella had told her repeatedly that she just didn't to discuss the subject. But her mother, stubborn and not one to back down just kept on quizzing and pressuring her.

Maybe she was going about all this in the wrong way? Maybe she had to just given in and instead of refusing to discuss this important emotional issue, she should just bring it up. Gabriella brought her thumb up to her bottom lip fighting the urge to bit her nail. Didn't the studies all show that refusing to talk about something often stirs up other people's interest in the subject, precisely because you've made it taboo? Isn't that what her entire career banked on? Maybe it was time to drop the I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it stance, and try a new strategy.

Sharpay let out a laugh as she leaned forward in her chair, "So let me get this straight, you're asking me if it's okay that you date your step brother even after the fact that you've already slept with him?"

"Oh my god it sounds so bad when you put it like that," the callers voice echoed in her head phones and Gabriella raised a brow as she looked over at Taylor who was shaking her head as she pretended to bag it against a folder.

"At least you're not related by blood," Gabriella said not sure if she was making it acceptable.

Taylor toss the folder behind her in a sign of giving up, "That's it I've heard it all," she said lifting her hands up to the ceiling, "Girl you're in your twenties, you can find a man who is socially acceptable. Does it have to be you're step-brother?"

"Do you have to love Fruit loops or could you learn to like Honey Nut Cheerios?" Sharpay said, "I think what we're trying to say is that while this is perfectly normal to you people are going to frown on this relationship."

The caller let out a sigh, "our parents don't know."

"How on earth do you bring that up?" Taylor said looking over at Gabriella with disbelief.

Sharpay nearly jumped out of her seat with laughter, "Mom, dad I'm dating my stepbrother. I think it's best to keep it in the family." The room erupted in laughter.

Troy shook his head as he placed the cap back on the oil. Troy closed his hood and then gathered his things. He had one more thing to do before he could sit back and relax. Looking back he spotted Emily digging in the yard.

"Emily!" he said quickly making his way over to where she was digging. Quickly he picked up to assess the damage. Her front paws were filthy her nose dusty from the flying dirt. Looking down at the beginnings of a tunnel leading into his neighbor yard from his own he looked back at his dog. "You're going to get us both in trouble," Troy said looking at the hole.

Looking back up at her house he frowned as he looked back at the ground prepared to push the dirt back in. Looking back at Emily he frowned, "What did you do with all the dirt?"

Emily whined as she wiggled in his hold to be put back down. Troy let out a sigh and put her back on the ground. Looking at the fence between the properties he placed a hand on his hips as he looked at hole in the fence a little further down. If he wanted Emily to have a safe place to play he was going to have fix the fence and by more dirt. The noise from the radio inside the garage mumbled with the sound of voices. Turning back he looked down at Emily who was looking up at him with a sense of job-well-done attitude.

"Don't be so damn proud of yourself just yet," he said with a stern tone. Walking back towards the garage he picked up the radio and things he left behind. Bringing it back inside to the kitchen he put the other items in his hands back under the sink. Listening to the sounds of Emily's claws on the floor he smirked as he looked over at her watching a spider crawl along the floorboards her little tail wagging with excitement. "We should probably do something about cleaning this place up."

Troy stood back up straight as he looked out of his kitchen window at the house next door. Looming at him as if it was watching his every move, judging him like protective parent. He was being a good neighbor, doing favors for nothing in return and stepping up when he didn't have to. Wasn't that what got him into trouble in the first place? He had already said yes about helping her out, he couldn't just turn his back on her now. Turning on the water in the sink he washed his hands his fingers coming to a stop around his high school ring.

It felt like so long ago when those youthful days seemed look into a bright future. When he was determined to one day be a good teacher, a caring husband, maybe even a great father. Back when he just knew his life was going to be a wonderful ordinary American dream. There was also the small factoid that he wasn't even sure he was Christian anymore. His doubts about God had simmered beneath the surface for a long time. Each time they tried to emerge he shoved them down with a vengeance.

Deciding to push his thoughts aside for now he looked back at Emily with a smile. "We need to do something about that light next door?" making his way to the basement he disappeared for a moment coming back up with some tools. He had the electric company come out on Monday afternoon to look at the wiring between the properties and while they had not been able to separate the current they were able to fix the problem between the houses.

If he had to be honest with himself he had planned to put in a light by her door anyway since that one night on the porch when he found her struggling in the dark. But since she asked he figured he'd just play along with the request. His neighbor was quite the interesting woman, a woman he didn't need in his immediate circle. If she hadn't Googled him by now he'd be impressed, she was media. Point blank, no stepping around it, in the last two years of his life he learned to hate the press and any outlet thereof.

The idea of her talking about sex on the radio didn't bother, it was the idea of her asking him questions about his past that did. He was worried about his fresh new start being put in jeopardy if she spoke out about who moved into the neighborhood. He'd be guilty again without a chance of resurrection or trial. Even worst he didn't like the idea of being mean to her, of having to slam the door in her face or threaten her off of his property. He had no desire to revisit that ugly side of his life again.

Looking down at Emily he bent down and gave her a quick pat on the head. "I shouldn't be too long," he told her as she licked his palm. Standing up again he made his way to the front door. It was quiet outside and he neighborhood must have been settling into their evening family dinners. Troy stopped in front of her place and came up the steps, drill in one hand and light fixture in the other.

Gabriella could barely contain her laughter as she listen to the caller on the line go on and on about his passion for circle jerking. He was a college kid who called in to ask if circle jerking meant you were gay. The look on Sharpay's face was priceless once she heard the whole story.

"Dude does it turn you on when you see these guy?" Sharpay asked generally curious.

"Not really," the boy said.

Sharpay extended her arms out in frustration as she looked over at Taylor, "Okay Tommy, it either does or it doesn't?"

"Yeah you can't answer this one with a maybe," Taylor chimed in as she leaned forward into the microphone.

Gabriella eyes read through the comments on the text message boards.

_8516: he's gay._

_5810: any sexual activity between a male and another male is considered gay or bi._

_2203: maybe he is bi._

_5481: I'm gay and I know that he knows he's gay. Just admit baby._

Gabriella pointed to her screen and leaned over toward Sharpay "I'm sorry Tommy but people on the text think you're gay or bi."

Sharpay clapped her hand, "See I'm not the only one," she said leaning back in her chair. "Personally I feel that if two disco sticks are in the same room and out at the same time relatively close to the other it's either bi, gay, or rape," she said looking from Taylor to Gabriella.

"That or the high school basketball team in the showers," Taylor chimed.

"Bam," Sharpay said holding up a hand to high five Taylor.

The boy on the phone let out a sigh, "Well, how do I know for sure?"

"I think just by the fact that your even asking is a step in the right direction," Gabriella said leaning forward, "but I think you need to be open to the idea that you might be gay or bi or maybe and this isn't as weird as you think, you just like jerking off in a group." Gabriella watched the screen as she spoke. "I mean many people try to deny, deny, deny and then at the end of the day all you've done is make your own life miserable."

"That is so freaking spot on," Sharpay nodded in agreement, "I know lots of people out there, many listening to this right now, who wish there was a straight pill, maybe if there was people wouldn't commit suicide or be disowned," she said leaning forward into the mic. "I don't think it's fair that everyone in a monogamous heterosexual relationship is living a life while everyone who chooses a different path is force to live a life style. Tommy you need to be honest and quick running in circles, experiment and see where it goes. You're in college tis the time to be funky and find yourself. And if you happen to be gay, bi, or anything else in that big category then embrace it!"

"Thanks, I love the show you girls are the best thing for late night radio."

"You're welcome baby," Sharpay hit the end call button and held up one hand in the air with sigh of content. "For the record, you know when you guys call in and trust me don't take this the wrong way, because I love it when you do, remember that you're calling in for advice. I am not qualified to make medical decisions or life choices. Luckily we have two lovely intelligent girls sitting next to me who also give great advice and if we're all telling you the same thing maybe you should just accept it and not fight us about it." Sharpay picked up her coffee mug as she leaned back in her chair. "That said, we're going to take a break but we'll be right back on 79.6 FM, Ask a Bitch! With your host Sharpay Evans. You got questions I got answers, call in at 773-779-6209."

As soon as Taylor started up the commercials, Sharpay took off her head sets and leaned forward to place them on the desk. Gabriella and Taylor followed suit.

"So what's this about a date tomorrow?" Sharpay said looking at Gabriella.

"He's a nice guy who runs a bakery," Taylor bragged as she smiled proudly. "He's single makes food, earns decent money and she looking." Taylor added motioning towards Gabriella.

"It's just lunch," Gabriella said raising a brow, "I might not like him."

Taylor frowned as she shook her head, "His name is Zeke and he one of my sister's friends."

Sharpay smiled as she looked over at Gabriella, "He sounds like a sweetheart," she said shrugging her shoulders.

"I hate blind dates," Gabriella said looking off to the side.

"It's not a blind date you have his picture," Taylor said with a smirk, "Besides Mr. tie me up and hold me down lives less than five feet away from your kitchen window, why are you still looking?"

"I agree," Sharpay said with a raised brow.

"I don't know," Gabriella began as she crossed her arms, "I just don't think I should pursue something with someone who lives less than five feet away from my kitchen window." Gabriella rubbed her arms with her hands in attempt to shake off her sudden shivers. "If things don't work out, things will get uncomfortable and I like my house, I like my neighborhood, I don't want to move."

Sharpay leaned over and punched Gabriella playfully in the arm. "Stop being such a puss. I don't think it'll come to that."

"And, Chad told me that Troy's just fixing the place up to sell, so even if this did go south, he'd be the one leaving not you," Taylor assured her.

"No, I'm putting my foot down. If I'm gonna get some anytime soon, I'm gonna have to extend the search away from my block."

"All right boss," Sharpay said with an eye roll. "I'll send out the search party soon. We need to get you some action before your va-jay-jay gets moldy."

Gabriella let out a sigh as the topic switched over to something else and she went back to monitoring the board thinking about her next door neighbor. She couldn't just start hooking up with her neighbor, he was her friend. A friend who just happened to have the most gorgeous blue eyes, and messy mane of sandy blond hair she wanted to run her fingers through.

Shit. No. she would _not_ think of him in such a way. She wouldn't.

To do list for Manhunting:

Get a wax.

Buy a new push up bra.

Find a wedding date.

Find a wedding date, who doesn't live next door.

Find a wedding date who has relationship potential and does not live in my neighborhood.

Later that night Gabriella parked her car in her usual spot and rolled her neck about her shoulders only there was no getting rid of that tension. Opening the car door she got out her shoes in one hand and her bag in the other, around one of her fingers was her key. As she came up the steps she mumbled about the dark making a note to buy a light fixture for Troy to put up, only when she got to the top step the entire porch came to life with light. Startled by the unexpected light she looked up and seen a note attached to the light fixture. Putting her shoes down she reached up for it and plucked it from the fixture.

_Gabriella,_

_This light is a motion detector and will turn on when you're on the top step. It will automatically turn off after 5 minutes. I hope this works okay and you get in safely. No more stumbling in the dark._

_The cookies were wonderful; your ability to fake bake is impeccable. _

_-Troy._

Gabriella smiled as a fluttering feeling rumbled in her stomach causing her to giggle slightly. Looking over at the house next door she peered up at the bedroom window where the light was on. She wondered what he was doing, if she should walk over with a bottle of scotch for a thank you night cap. Shaking the thought from her head she came to the front door and put her key in the lock as soon as the door was open she stepped inside leaving her thought of her neighbor outside on the porch.


	10. Chapter 10

_Manhunting lesson #1: Don't Expect Dates to Be Elaborate._

_When you live in a small city you didn't have many options, which, luckily makes it easier to always keep it simple. The trick was to always keep it low end on the first date to avoid pressure. Just like life New York City, small towns had their nice restaurants where dinner and drinks could cost a few hundred dollars. As a man-hunting woman you have to expect the financial reality. Especially in this economy. No one was going to put themselves in debt to impress someone they didn't know very well. Besides, most men want a girl who can just hang out and be casual. _

Gabriella checked her phone one last time to make sure that the shows talking points for tonight made it to their station manager. This morning had been a busy one, after an appointment at the hair salon and a breif walk in at the nail salon Gabriella was primped and pampered for her date. She wore her new Marc Jacobs python patchwork sandal with a grey pencil skirt and loose fitted black top. Her hair was swept back and up with hints of red and auburn highlights that complemented her skin tone. Quietly she sat in the second booth from the door of the café so she could watch the comings and goings as she waited for her coffee.

She had two weeks left to find her wedding date/fake boyfriend and she'd be damned if she was going to fail. Her dormant dating life was about to get a battery jump into overdrive. She need was ready for this, how hard could it be? What if she'd called herself for advice? What would she say?

First, she'd ask herself id she was out of her mind for getting into such a ridiculous situation. But then she'd probably ask what she wanted the outcome to be. Did she in fact want a boyfriend in her life right now? Could she make the time for one? She missed sex. Boy oh boy did she miss sex. She missed the seduction of it all. But this wasn't about getting laid.

Okay. Maybe it was a little. Besides wouldn't this little experience give her some way to be closer to her listeners? She wanted them to feel comfortable asking the most intimate questions. She wanted to help women see their part in the seduction scenario. It was a new age, women didn't have to sit around and wait for the man of their dreams, they had every right to go out there and get their hands on a Mr. Right all by themselves.

"Hello," a voice snapped her from her current daze, "you're Gabriella right?"

At the sound of her own name, Gabriella looked up at the dark skinned man who was smiling down at her with his hand extended. The picture did him no justice.

"Yes and you must be Zeke?" she said doing her best to smile warmly.

Just then the waitress came with pot of coffee and Zeke sat down as she filled the two cups.

"I hope you haven't been waiting long there was an issue at the bakery and I couldn't leave as soon as I wanted to," he said leaning forward and watching her as he reached for the sugar.

"No problem," Gabriella said with a sigh of relief. "I understand all about work and how it can take up so much of your time," she said adding two creams to her coffee.

"So Taylor tells me you're the producer of that show she's on?" he said raising a brow.

"Guilty," she smirked as she watched him pour three creams into his coffee.

"What's that like I mean Sharpay is pretty wild," his eyes seem to narrow at the sound of Sharpay's name form his own lips. A warning flag shot up and Gabriella smile fell a little. Of course, he was interested in Sharpay.

Gabriella looked down at her place mat as she dusted off invisible crumbs, "She's a good friend of mine, we hang out a lot," she said with a nod. "It's almost necessary for our job," she added, "I mean you have to be close with someone you're gonna sit with for four hours, five days a week and talk about anything that comes up." Risking it she looked up to see him watching her with a smile.

"I could only imagine," he said lifting his cup to his lips.

Gabriella did the same, not sure what else to say. After burning her top lip and trying her hardest not to show any reaction she placed her cup down slowly as she thought about something to say. She was drawing a blank. This was ridiculous she was a producer of a talk show and right now she had nothing to say. Then again it wasn't like the topics of porn, threesomes, and sleeping with the relatives were on the table.

"So you know Taylor from High school," he finally said filling the silence and making a face as he reached for more sugar to add to his coffee.

Gabriella nodded, "Yes, how do you know her?" Did they have to come to this so quickly? Where had she gone wrong, how did she flat line so fast? How were they going to get out of small talk purgatory?

"High School," he answered, "however I don't remember you that well?"

"I was shy, fatter, two thirds on my way to completely invisible," she answered with a small grin. Great they went to the same high school, knew the same people and he still hadn't noticed her at all. The goal of the date was for him to be taking off her lipstick, not to be helping her wipe the tears of high school nightmares as they smudge her mascara.

"Were you part of the academic decthcathlon?"

And the hope continued, "Yes I was co-caption," she said with a smile.

"Nope," he said with a sigh, "I still don't remember you."

Gabriella placed her hands on either side of her coffee cup, "It's alright I'm use to it," she said meaning it a little too much than she'd like to admit. He lifted his cup of coffee and her eyes wonder around the café, then out of the corner of her eye she saw what looked like her neighbor. This wasn't how she wanted to run into her neighbor. The last thing she needed was him bearing witness to this disaster. Gabriella felt her heart speed up and she lurched forward to shield her face from the counter only to knock her cup forward creating a wave of hot coffee to flood the table and land on Zeke's crotch.

"Oh shit," he yelled jumping up and patting the steaming area.

Gabriella winced as she stood up quickly. "I'm so, so, so, sorry," she said between clenched teeth as she reached for napkins from the dispenser and getting up from her seat.

Troy heard the commotion behind him and turned around and saw Gabriella apologizing to a man who looked like he'd wet himself. After a moment he realized she had actually spilled hot coffee on him and Troy winced with the idea of pain that man must be going through. After a moment of feeling generally embarrassed for her he couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Gabriella trying to wipe down the man's crotch.

Troy looked back at the clerk who was smirking at the scene as well. "Sucks to be that guy," she said looking back at Troy. "What can I get you sir?"

"A coffee with two creams and one sugar," Troy turned back to see the man storming off to the washroom, leaving Gabriella standing there bunching up a wad of coffee stained napkins. Stepping away from the counter he bent down and picked the trashcan and made his way over. "You look like you need this?" he said quietly.

"Thanks, maybe I could probably jump inside and hide until he's gone," she said dumping the napkins in the trashcan and letting out a long sigh.

Troy knew the right thing to do would be to walk away and leave her to whatever it was that she was doing here, but he couldn't. "Did you change your hair?"

Blowing a strand of hair away from her eyes she brought a hand up and wiped her brow with her wrist, "I got highlights," she said a little distracted.

"They look nice," he said with a small smile. Looking in the direction the man left in he looked back at her, "This is probably none of my business but did you just spill scolding hot coffee on your date's pants."

Gabriella's shoulders fell and she let out a groan as she fell back into her seat with a soft thump. "Yeah," she said looking back at the restrooms as well. "Needless to say I think the date's over," she said reaching for her purse and pulling out some money.

_Manhunting Lesson #2: Never Expecting a Guy to Pay_

_While most men are happy to pay on the first date, many are wary of dating a woman who never pulls out her purse. Always expecting the guy to pay is rude, especially if you do something as foolish as burn his crotch with coffee. Offering to pay every once in a while will show him that you're not looking for him to finance your good time, something you'd be surprised a lot of guys worry about._

"Ah come on," Troy said bending a little to catch her eye, "what's a date really, but a job interview that lasts all night? The only difference is that in job interview there no a chance you'll wind up naked at the end of it."

"Unless your stripper," she said looking up at him with a smirk.

Troy couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips, "true."

"Sir you're coffee?" the woman at the counter called to him.

Troy nodded and turned back to Gabriella, "Good luck with your date," he said motioning towards the bathrooms, "I gotta get back to school,"

Gabriella nodded and said her good byes as she watched him leave the café, once he was gone she let her head fall down onto the table in front of her proceeded bang her head against it at least three times.

Later that evening Gabriella leaned back in her chair as she looked at Sharpay with a frown, "I was horrified."

"So what? You put him out of commission for like what? A day?" Sharpay said with smirk, "Big deal, doesn't mean anything."

Gabriella closed her eyes. "It means I'm not going out with him again," she said looking back at the screen.

The five minute comical break was almost coming to an end and Sharpay had found the crotch burning incident to be only a minor setback. Looking back at Taylor she shook her head, "I told you I hate blind dates?"

"It wasn't a blind date," Taylor sighed.

"She's right," Sharpay lifted her cup of coffee, "it was more like a meet, greet and burn," Sharpay said teased.

"I hate dating," Gabriella said looking at the timer, "2 minutes left."

"Hey, cheer up, I'll hook you up with some one," Sharpay shrugged and looked over at Taylor, "My friend Max is free."

"She should just hook up with her neighbor," Taylor said under her breath.

"Minute and a half," Gabriella warned.

Sharpay and Taylor put their head phones on and waited for Gabriella's cue.

"Welcome back to Ask a Bitch! On 79.6 FM, with your host Sharpay Evans, You got questions I got answers call in at 773-779-6209 and I'll hook you up because I got your crazy baby!" Sharpay looked over at Gabriella and smirked. "Tonight let's talk about first dates," she said with a wide smile.

Gabriella smacked a hand over her forehead and let it slide down her face. The embarrassment was never ending.

Taylor began rounding up calls while Sharpay turned to Gabriella leaning back in her chair, "Enlighten me Gabi, what's it like out in the causal dating world?"

Gabriella shot Sharpay a fair amount of daggers as she came closer to the microphone, "It's a lot harder than it looks on Television."

"How so?" Sharpay countered.

"It's never anything like you expected," Gabriella said with a shrug as she looked at both her friends, "You end up sitting across the table from Mr. Right or even Mr. Causal Alright, I'm talking about those of us who think we're perfectly normal-ish yet somehow keep meeting guys who are drunk, weird, rude, pushy, or critical, who lack basic human communication skills, who are not actually single, or who try to hump our legs before we even order appetizers."

Taylor shook her head, "as women, we all go through that it's a coming of age, the theme song is like a mash-up of Three 6 Mafia's "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" and Beyonce's "Single Ladies" adding up to something that sounds like, "It's Hard Out Here for All the Single Ladies."

Gabriella huffed, "You can say that again. Sometimes I think I'd be better off with a good book and a glass of bourbon."

"A book can't give you an orgasm," Sharpay chimed.

"Neither can most men," Gabriella held up her finger pointing at Sharpay, "I've never been able to orgasm unless I'm on top and even then I have to focus and breath and tune out everything going else that's going on."

"Well maybe you just haven't come across the right man," she said with a smirk.

Taylor chuckled and Gabriella tossed a stack of post it's her way, "No one likes a smart ass," Gabriella muttered as Taylor cued Sharpay.

"Liz," Sharpay hit the button, "are you there babe?"

"I'm here,"

Sharpay reads the screen, "it says here you had the date from hell,tell us all about it."

Troy shook his head as he finished washing up the dishes and placing them on the rack to dry. His phone rang and he reached into his pocket to answer it. "Hello?"

"How are things?" His mother's voice on the other end offered a comforted feeling. Being so far away from home was a challenge. Looking down at Emily who was sleeping on the kitchen mat by his feet he smiled a little.

"Things are good," he said turning off the water and reaching for a hand towel. "I took the some stuff up to good will today."

"How are classes going, has anyone said anything?" she asked and he could hear the worry in her voice.

Troy walked over to the small table he'd set up this afternoon in the kitchen, "People know, but no one has actually said something other than my teaching aid."

"What did they say?"

"She apparently sat in on one of my classes' way back and according to her I'm an innocent man," Troy explained as he looked around at his handiwork in the kitchen so far. He'd managed to get all the caked on dust and grime off the counter tops and cabinet doors, he had plans to re-varnish them this weekend.

"She?" his mother asked quizzically, "That's a little weird."

"Yeah, that's what I thought but I mean it is what it is, I'm not going to complain about it. I figure the less attention I call to myself the better."

"Probably wise," his mother didn't say much else after that.

"I got a dog," he said filling the silence, "Named her Emily."

"Have you met any nice girls?"

Troy rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his chair, "Now why would I want to do that?"

"Because it's healthy, you're a man Troy, you can't let this one thing dictate your entire life. It's already impacted your career. Don't punish yourself. One day you'll have to start dating again."

"Not really. Being single isn't that bad. It beats subjecting myself to more embarrassment or heartache," he mumbled the last part. Was that what he was doing? He couldn't tell anymore. His thoughts had done their daily replay of all of his mistakes, faults and missteps-a nightly routine, it seemed. Some people counted sheep; Troy counted mistakes one by one.

"Honey you picked a bad one. You've got to face that. Lindsey was no good for you. Don't let her ruin your future."

His mother didn't understand. No one did. Although he'd only been married for two and half years, he still felt like Lindsey should be beside him. That was what marriage was about wasn't it? Being there for each other in good times and bad? In sickness and health? In times of peace and in times of chaos? "Call it what you want. I don't think I can ever trust a woman enough to have a relationship again."

Everyone had said they were cut from the same cloth, a perfect match. Unfortunately they were right. They'd both cared too much about what other people thought of them. When Lindsey had a chance to distance herself from the disaster surrounding his life, she'd done just that. He on the other hand had been stuck.

At one time he'd thought Lindsey was charismatic, confident, and righteous. Somewhere along the road, those qualities had morphed into being flighty, arrogant and judgmental. Funny how your perspectives change with experience. He had to admit he hadn't been the easiest person to live with after he'd been arrested. He'd withdrawn. Bottled up his emotions, and tried to hide the fact that he felt sorry for himself. He did feel sorry for himself, he just decided not to let anyone else know that.

"You have to try."

Troy was quiet as he thought about Gabriella, "Well I did meet one girl."

"Does she know?"

Troy let out a sigh, was that going to be what everything came down to these days? Who knew what about his past? Troy looked at the boxes he'd put by the basement door to be taken down tomorrow. This place was a lot more work than he bargain for but in a way it was becoming a great distraction. Something he could focus on while he kept the world out. But for how long? "She doesn't know," he said finally.

Gabriella closed the door to her car and fished for her house keys in her purse as she made her way up the drive. Tonight she was carrying a big bag filled with mail for the show that she had to short through along with things to read up on.

"Thank god tomorrow is Friday" she murmured to herself as she put her key in the lock. Looking up at the motion light she smiled and then pushed the door open. As soon as she was inside she pushed the door closed and placed her bag on the floor.

There was a knock at the door and Gabriella looked down at her watch then through the peep hole. When she saw Troy standing there she couldn't fight the excitement and curiosity rumbling inside her. "You do know it's 1:30 in the morning right?" she said opening the door trying her best to sound uninterested.

"I'm throwing a party this Saturday and I appreciate it if you came," he said with a small smile.

Gabriella nodded and looked into his blue eyes, blue eyes that she could see clearly because of the light shining over him. "Thanks for the light by the way," she said pointing up, "how much do I owe you?"

"No need," he said quietly, "I just wanted to catch you before you went off to sleep." Troy began to turn away from the door.

"How about a drink?" she leaned against the door as she watched him watch her carefully. His blue eyes blazed with something she couldn't put her finger on and she realized how disappointed she'd be if he said no.

"Just one," he said finally.

"Just one," she repeated as she pushed the door open a little wider to let him in.

"I heard the show," he said sounding a little nervous.

Gabriella let out a small laugh, "Freaked out yet?"

"Not sure," he said walking towards the kitchen.

She followed and reached for two tumblers from her cabinet and then for the scotch, "So how was your day?" she said pouring them both a glass. Just thinking about his mouth on hers put every nerve ending in every erogenous zone on full alert.

Tough. It wasn't going to happen, couldn't happen, so she'd better get used to it. according to everything she knew about sexual intimacy kissing didn't happen right away, lots of things happened before getting that close. Eye contact. Not exactly his strong suit. Light touches. He kept his distance. Mirroring behavior. So far sharing a night cap was all they had in common. Asking the right questions. And sex? Please. That was the last step. She knew the road, which meant she didn't have to walk down it right?

"Well," Troy began, "I didn't do anything as exciting as burn a man genitals but I did find time to finally clean the kitchen and empty out another one of the bedrooms," Troy said leaning forward onto the counter.

"Funny," she said with a muted smile as she passed him his glass. "It's crazy to think about how much stuff she had in that house."

"Yeah," looking at the glass he held it in his hands for a moment, "When my grandmother died we sort of just threw a sheet over everything and called it a day. It's weird going though all her stuff."

"What are you doing with it all?"

"I've been taking it to good will, tossing out junk and keeping things that seem important or that could be refurbished."

"Sounds riveting," she said bringing her glass up to her lips.

"So tell me, do you burn all your dates?" he said looking down at his own glass and looking at the color of the alcohol.

"No, just the really boring ones," she said with a half smile. "Guess he'll probably never call me back," she said sitting down in one of the chairs.

"At least you'll be remembered?" Troy shrugged as he came to the table as well.

Gabriella was silent for a moment as she looked down at her glass. "What were you doing at the café in the middle of the day anyway? Doesn't the teachers' lounge have coffee?"

"I don't know what that is but I wouldn't call it coffee," he said with amusement.

Gabriella reached down and undid the buckle on her shoe. Her feet were killing her, she could feel her pinky toe throbbing as it rubbed against the strap of her Marc Jacob heals. Beauty always came at a price; looking back up at Troy she began working on her other shoe. "So, how's being a teacher working for you?"

"I'm enjoying it," he said cautiously. "It's been a few years since I taught; it feels nice to be back at it, making a difference, shaping minds to be better."

"Right," Gabriella furrowed her brow as she placed her shoes off to the side, "I don't know how you do it, I have no patience for children." Sitting upright she reached her hands up to her neck and her fingers worked at the dull arch just beneath the skin.

Troy watched her hand caress her neck and not being able to help himself he instantly began to wonder about how soft her skin must be under her fingertips. It had been a long time since he allowed himself to touch a woman in that manner. He wondered if she'd feel warm. Her eyes fluttered shut and he watched her for a moment as her face softened.

"I hope you're not giving out to much homework?" she said opening her eyes again to see him.

"Never," he huffed, "just some small papers and journal assignments."

"So I guess that makes you the cool teacher?" she said reaching for her hair clip and pulling it out. Tossing it on the table she shook her hair out and the room instantly began to smell like fresh linen. It was a clean scent, soapy with a hint of softness in the air made his stomach tighten. His eyes tried to remain on her face even thought her chest was shifting underneath the fabric of her shirt as she shook her hair out.

"How's life as a producer working for you?" he asked bringing his drink to his lips.

"Everyday there's a problem," Gabriella said as she leaned back in her chair, "It seems like every time I turn around there's someone asking me for charts, reports, highlights or clips for the show and I'm about ready to lose my mind."

"Sounds like you're good at what you do," Troy said tilting his glass and watching the alcohol in it. "I use to be good at what I do."

"You don't like teaching?" Gabriella sat up and leaned forward with her elbows on the table.

"I love it," Troy lifted his glass holding it up as he looked at the color before tilting it back to his lips a little, "It's just not the same as it use to be."

Gabriella raised a brow, "Where were you teaching before?"

Troy let the warm burn of the scotch sooth his throat, "I taught at a private school, Rigdon Academy."

"Sounds fancy," Gabriella lifted her own glass to her lips, "Also sounds expensive."

"It's not about the money, I don't miss that, it's just more about the faith in what I use to believe in." Troy shrugged his shoulders, "I was a Christian man once, with a church, a wife, a good job, squeaky clean reputation."

"What happened?" Gabriella said suddenly curious about the man sitting across from her that she knew nothing about.

"It fell apart," he offered solemnly.

Gabriella was quiet for a long moment as they let that sink into the silence between them. He made no effort to further explain himself or offer up details, he simply just stared off into space. "So you're divorced, with a dog named Emily, in a house that belongs to your dead grandmother and you creepily stalk my porch at one in morning?"

Troy smirk, "I guess so."

"And you decided to come all the way to Albuquerque?"

Troy shifted the glass in his hands back and forth to watch the ice clink together, "It suited me to get away for a while," he shrugged.

It was almost three when he got up to leave. She looked tired and he didn't want to keep her awake any longer than he already had. On their way to the door she shuffled behind him lazily.

"So is there a dress code on Saturday?"

"No," he said turning around almost surprised by how close she was, "It's dress casual."

Gabriella nodded and tucked some of her hair behind ear. "Do I need a date?"

Troy shrugged his shoulders, "thought you hated dates?"

Gabriella shrugged her shoulders as well "it's a part of life," she said, "beside I kind of lied and told my mother I was dating someone," she winced.

Troy eye brows arched and he looked at her curiously, "How are you going to handle that?"

"Date." Gabriella brought a hand up to scratch her head, "pray, eat lots of chocolate, and buy more scotch."

Troy nodded, "You live a very interesting life."

"Who? Me?" she said waving a hand in disbelief. "It's amazing I don't own five cats."

"Cats?"

"Don't judge me," Gabriella scolded coming to stand in front of him with a playful smile.

He eyed her steadily. "What makes you think I'm in a position to judge anyone? Everyone's got their own shit to shovel, Gabriella. Believe me." He started forward and she stepped aside so he could pass. She followed him to the entryway.

Troy began to head out and Gabriella was about to close the door behind him when she stopped herself. "Troy?" she asked coming onto the porch in her bare feet.

Turning around on the first step down he looked back up at her as he shoved his hands in his pockets, "Yes?" he said softly.

Gabriella pulled the door closed a little behind her leaving it open just a crack, "What happened?" she paused as she took in the light blue in his eyes as he looked up at her. Part of her was stalling, the other half of her was curious, she didn't want him to go just yet but she knew he had to. "I mean if you don't want to talk about it that's fine too," she said hesitantly.

"What do you want to know?" He said cautiously.

Gabriella was quite for a moment as they watched each other and she was filled with the sense that there was a lot more to the man standing on her stoop than she expected. "What happened to your marriage?"

"Her name was Lindsey," Troy said quietly, "I thought we loved each other very much, I thought we we're going to grow old together. Then my work got in the way. I wasn't as accessible as I should have been, didn't take into consideration that she was going through things, and we kind of lost sight of each other. So much so that she had an affair with my boss."

Gabriella's eyebrow's rose towards her hairline. Even thought he could feel his face heating he held her eye and kept talking.

"We got divorced, she got remarried," Troy paused as his eyes decided to fall to her bare feet, "Now she's happily married, living in our old house and very much pregnant with their first child."

"God," Gabriella said sucking in a breath, "I'm really sorry Troy."

He shook his head. He hadn't told her because he wanted her pity. "It is what it is. I'm dealing with it. Just like you're dealing with your stuff, some days are good and some days suck the big one."

"Yeah, they do."

"I figure there isn't a rule book for getting through crap. You just get through it however you can."

She cocked her head. "Including driving a thousand miles to clear out a dead woman's house?"

"Yeah. Including that," he said taking a step down from the porch to the next step down, "along with some inappropriate use of alcohol, punching inanimate objects, self-pitying, mopping and buying a dog I named Emily."

Gabriella smile tugged a little and before she knew what she was doing. She was stepping towards him before he could turn to go she caught his forearm. He glanced down as she transferred her grip to his hand. Her fingers were warm as they wrapped around his. Once she was close enough she bent down and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Pulling back she bit her bottom lip not really sure how he would take it. It was almost the first time they physically touched since he helped her through her kitchen window.

"Good night Gabriella."

"Good night Troy," she watched as he walked across the lawn and on to his property. Her eyes followed him up the steps and continued to watch him until he was gone. Crossing her arms over her chest she let out a sigh and turned to go back inside slowly shutting the door behind her.


End file.
